Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived
by Your-Neverending-Nightmare
Summary: Lord Voldemorts reign of terror has sent the wizarding world into chaos. The wizarding world is relying on Harry Potter:The Boy Who lived to end it, but will he be able to while coping with more death, surprises and betrayal?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The sun was still high in Albania, but in a forest in the north of the country all was dark and quiet. Two figures ran through the trees, one was taller than the other was, the tallest appeared to be the leader. They ran on through the trees, both holding a wand in their hand, until the smallest fell on a root.

"_Lumos_," he muttered, a light appeared at the end of his wand, illuminating him and the area around him. His face was pale and there were bags under his tear-filled eyes. His blonde hair was dirty and scruffy. The taller man approached, he was a sallow-faced man with a hooked nose. He swept his hand through his dark, greasy hair. This was Severus Snape.

"Draco, we must go," said Snape. "The Dark Lord is waiting for us."

"Where are we going?" Draco asked, turning his wand in his fingers and staring at the floor.

"It is not far, you will see soon," Snape replied. "Now get up!"

"I'm not moving!" Draco exclaimed. "We've been moving for weeks and you never stop!"

"We cannot risk being seen," said Snape. "We also cannot risk Apparating, you do not have your licence and if we Splinched, that would cause serious problems. The Ministry is looking for us, Draco."

"Let them, it was you that killed Dumbledore, not me," Draco muttered. Snape leapt towards him; his fingers closed on Draco's throat.

"Do you want me to kill you?" said Snape, bitterly. "The Dark Lord will not be pleased, you did not complete the task he set you, he will torture you. Killing you would save you from the pain and torment." He released Draco and walked away. Draco stood a few moments later and followed, rubbing his neck where Snape had strangled him.

After another hour walking, the two of them reached a clearing in the forest. A man stood alone, wearing long robes. He turned; his face was paler than Draco's was and very snake-like. His eyes had scarlet slit-like pupils.

"Severus, Draco," he said. His voice was high and cold.

"My Lord," said Snape, stepping forwards. "The task was completed, Dumbledore is dead."

"I thank you, Severus," said Lord Voldemort. "I was wrong to believe that your loyalties lied with Dumbledore and not myself." Voldemort turned to face Malfoy, who was cowering at the bottom of the trees. "Am I correct in believing it was not you, Draco, that killed him?" Draco nodded; he was shaking with fear. "You will be punished for this. However, you were able to let my followers into the school, for this, I will not kill you."

"My lord," said Severus. "Draco was ready to complete the task when I arrived. I thought it best to complete it, he was taking too long, the members of the Order of the Phoenix were fighting us."

"I do not blame you," said Voldemort. "But Draco did not do as I said. Do you wish to argue with me Severus?"

"No, my lord," Snape replied. "I am sorry, I was trying to explain."

"The boy is no longer your student, Severus, you do not have to cover up his mistakes," said Voldemort.

"Give me your arm!" Snape held out his left arm, the Dark Mark could be seen on his wrist skull, with a serpent protruding from the mouth like a tongue. Voldemort touched the mark with his long finger and it turned black. Minutes later, Voldemort was surrounded by a tight circle of hooded, masked figures.

"Welcome," said Voldemort, loudly. "I believe you have all heard of the death of Professor Dumbledore." The Death Eaters laughed. "Indeed. Now, there is only one person that stands in my way of victory. Harry Potter."

"My Lord," said Snape, stepping forwards. "I have been researching the magic protecting Potter while he is at the home of his Aunt and Uncle. The protection will end when he turns seventeen."

"Thank you, Severus.," said Voldemort. "Is it decided then, that we shall go to Potter on the thirty-first of July."

"But, My Lord, Potter will know that the magic will run out," said Severus. "He may go to the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, or even the Weasley's home."

"You have been unable to tell me that whereabouts of the headquarters, Severus," said Voldemort. "However, I already have a spy at the Weasleys home."

"My Lord, the Fidelius charm cannot be broken. Albus was the Secret Keeper and the location shall remain ever secret now that he is gone."

"Lets just hope that we get to Potter before that. If we don't, we will attack the Weasleys. Wormtail says that the blood traitors are very busy at the moment, planning a wedding," said Voldemort, with a disgusted look on his face. "I will not be defeated by him again. Now, it is time for you to see what happens if you betray me." Malfoy looked up; tears were still leaking from his eyes. _"Crucio!"_ Voldemort roared. Malfoy shrieked in pain and writhed on the floor. Voldemort laughed, his death eaters joined in. Voldemort stopped the curse and looked down at Malfoy, who was shaking and whimpering on the ground.

"You are a failure, just like your father," he said. Malfoy looked at Voldemort. He slowly picked himself up off the ground and stood in front of Voldemort. His face was pale and tracks from his tears ran down his cheeks

"Shut up about my father!" he roared, raising his wand. The death eaters laughed, however, Voldemort raised one hand and silenced them.

"Do you wish to stand up to me?" Voldemort said. Suddenly, one of the Death Eaters stepped forwards. They pulled their hood back to reveal their face. It was a woman, she had long blonde hair and there were many tears running down her face.

"Leave him alone," she said shakily.

"Narcissa," Voldemort hissed. "I was not expecting you, who told you of this meeting?" Another Death Eater stepped forward. "Ah, Bellatrix."

"Sorry, My Lord," said Bellatrix. "I should not have told her."

"No, I will deal with you later," said Voldemort. He turned to Narcissa. "Why do you come here?"

"To save my son," Narcissa replied. "You cannot punish Draco because Lucius was arrested."

"That is not why I am punishing him," said Voldemort. "He did not complete the task i gave him."

"And why did you set him the task of killing Dumbledore?" said Narcissa, bitterly. "It was because you lost one of your Death Eaters, you wanted revenge, so you took it out on my son. He couldn't refuse. You would have killed him. Well, I am not going to let you!" Voldemort laughed. He raised his wand, pointing it at Narcissa.

"You will pay for this," Voldemort said. Narcissa grabbed her son and the two of them ran through the forest. Voldemort turned to face his Death Eaters.

"Bellatrix!" Voldemort exclaimed. Bellatrix Lestrange stepped forward. "Bring her back to me, do what you wish with your dear nephew. Avery, Crabbe, Nott. Help her."

"Yes, my Lord," said Bellatrix, excitedly. The four Death Eaters ran through the forest after Narcissa and Draco, firing many curses at them at once.

"Is there anyone else who wished to stand up to me like Narcissa?" Voldemort said. No one moved. "I assure you, that will not be tolerated, Narcissa will get what she deserves, Draco will too. The Malfoys are traitors!" Once again, no one moved. The only sound to be heard was the trees swaying in the wind. Voldemort smiled "I thank you all for your loyalty, you may go."

There were a number of _pops_ and _cracks_ and the people disappeared, leaving Voldemort and Severus alone in the clearing.

"Severus, what other information do you have on Potter?" Voldemort asked.

"My Lord, Potter seems to have fallen for the Weasley girl." Snape replied, his lip curling. "Potter is a very loyal friend, and would do anything to protect his friends and girlfriend."

"I remember," Voldemort replied. "I shall use that fact against him. Do you have anything else?"

"No, my lord," said Snape.

"You do not know what Potter was doing with Dumbledore that night?" asked Voldemort. "You said Potter witnessed the murder, why was he there?"

"I do not know, My Lord," Snape replied. "Potter is a nosey, troublesome young boy. It wouldn't surprise me if he saw the Dark Mark and decided to face the Death Eaters on his own. I think that is what he did."

"Thank you, Severus," said Voldemort. "You may leave," There was another crack and Snape disappeared. A few minutes later, Bellatrix returned, followed by the three Death Eaters, who were dragging Narcissa. Voldemort smiled.

"Thankyou," he said, he raised his wand and pointed it at Narcissa. He walked across to Narcissa, the Death Eaters released her and stepped back. "You made a mistake coming here, Narcissa, now you will see what I do to those that betray me, that oppose me." He kicked Narcissa in the ribs, she let out a scream and rolled over, attempting to crawl away. "_Avada Kedavra_!" There was a flash of green light, Narcissa flew back through the air and landed a few metres away. She was dead.

"Where is the boy?" Voldemort asked.

"I'm afraid he escaped," Bellatrix replied.

"How was that possible?" Voldemort spat. "I gave you the simple task of catching him, he cannot apparate, how could he escape?"

"There was another, in the forest, my Lord," Bellatrix replied. "I would not disobey your orders, My Lord, my loyalty lies only with you and none other."

"_Crucio!" _Voldemort shouted, Bellatrix fell to the floor, and, like Draco, writhed around in agony. Voldemort released the curse and looked down. "You will find him, and bring him back to me, dead or alive, I don't care."

"Yes, my Lord," said Bellatrix. There were more _pops _and _cracks _and the other Death Eaters disappeared. Voldemort raised his wand and pointed it at Narcissa's body and it disappeared. There was another _crack _and Voldemort vanished.

* * *

The sun had set. Stars lit up the late night sky. The streets of little Whinging were deserted; an unusual silence crept over them. Many people were indoors, their eyes glued to their television sets, waiting for more news about the strange disappearances, murders and other unexplainable happenings that had occurred over the last few weeks. In the last week, over twenty people were killed on a crowded London street. The police had told everyone that it was terrorists, but no one seemed to believe this story, especially since the victims had not been stabbed, shot or poisoned and no other rational explanation could be found.

At number four, Privet Drive, sixteen-year old Harry Potter laid asleep on his bed. His black hair was more untidy than ever, his sellotaped glasses were sliding off his nose and hidden beneath his fringe was a lightening-bolt shape scar that Harry had received when his parents were killed by Lord Voldemort when Harry was just one year old. Only a small part of the bedroom floor could be seen because of a large trunk. The contents of this trunk were most unusual; Spellbooks, a broomstick, copies of the 'Daily Prophet'. Of course, Harry Potter was no ordinary boy. He was a wizard, and for the last six years he had attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry woke suddenly; his bright green eyes darted around the bedroom. He stood and walked across to the window and looked into the street. The only living creature to be seen was Mr. Tibbles, a cat belonging to Mrs. Figg, Harry's neighbour. Mrs. Figg was a squib, which meant that she had wizarding parents but possessed no magical ability herself. She was also a member of the Order of the Phoenix, a group of witches and wizards that fought Voldemort, and Harry knew that she would be watching him. Harry sat down on his bed and picked up the letter he had been reading before he fell asleep.

_Dear Harry,_

_I hope you're enjoying your summer holidays and that the Dursleys are treating you alright. My summer has been amazing, we went to Egypt when I returned from Hogwarts and I've been spending the rest of my time researching for what we will be doing this year (I won't aay anything else incase this gets intercepted.) Anyway, we still need to arrange plans for this year. If you are going to live at HQ, I'll meet you there on the 6th August, I'm sure Ron will come too. _

_See you soon_

_Hermione._

Harry threw the letter onto a large stack on his bedside table. Hermione Granger was one of Harrys best friends from school, and when Harry had told her that he would not be returning to Hogwarts this year, she refused to let him go alone. Ron Weasley, Harrys other best friend, was also coming with them. Harry picked up the copy of the Daily Prophet that had been delivered that morning.

_**More attacks: Minister for Magic refuses to comment.**_

_The Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour has refused to comment following the increased number of attacks on Muggles and Muggle-borns. Yesterday, the _Daily Prophet_ reported that there had been an Inferi attack in Nottingham, which caused many problems for Obliviators as they tried to modify the memories over fifteen Muggles. Many of those attacked were Muggles. "These attacks are getting worse each time," says Griselda Marchbanks of the Wizenmagot. "The Minister for Magic has not done anything to prevent attacks as far as we know."_

Scrimgeour caused a lot of problems following his announcement that he had told the muggle Prime minister about the "Second War" as many people are calling it.

"_Mr. Scrimgeour is doing a fine job as minister for magic." Says Percy Weasley, Junior Assistant to the Minister. "During his year of leadership, he has arrested many well-known Death Eaters and has currently got most of the aurors tracking down you-know-who."_

Harry laughed, that was typical of Percy, Rons older brother, he had chosen his job over his family, and refused to speak to his mother, father, brothers or sisters since he had left to live in London. Harry threw the newspaper into his trunk and stood up again. He had hardly left his room since he returned to the Dursleys. When Harrys parents had been killed, he had been sent to live with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, who hated magic. They had treated him like an outsider all of his life, while Dudley, his extremely overweight cousin, had received anything he wanted. When Harry had returned from Hogwarts, he had had the death of Dumbledore on his mind and had enjoyed the solitude, away from everyone asking if he was alright. When he had dared to leave the room and face his Aunt and Uncle, he had been treated like part of the wallpaper. Dudley, however, had resumed his hobby of Harry-hunting whenever Harry left the house, Dudley and his gang would chase after Harry, but Harry was far too fast. The rest of his summer was spent reading his schoolbooks, waiting for his birthday to arrive. Harry hadn't wanted to return to the Dursleys, however, while he was there, there was magic protecting him, this magic would end on his seventeenth birthday. So, Harry had decided to stay until then, the only thing that kept him sane was the fact that he wouldn't have to return there again.

Harry looked down at the clock. 9:57. Uncle Vernon wasn't home yet, he had been working many late nights over the holidays after two of his employees went missing. One of them was later found, but had been sent to hospital with severe mental problems. Harry walked across to the door and approached the staircase, he peered over the banister rail and saw the hall was empty (he now did this every time he went downstairs; Dudley was so overweight that it was painful to pass him on the staircase). He ran down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Aunt Petunia was cleaning the worktops.

"What do you want?" she said, as Harry entered the room.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm leaving tomorrow," Harry replied.

"Fine," Said Aunt Petunia, she turned again and carried on cleaning, before speaking again. "Where are you going? And how are you getting there?" She didn't face Harry, but there was something different in her voice.

"My house," said Harry. Number twelve, Grimmauld Place was the home that had belonged to Harrys godfather, Sirius Black, who had left it to Harry when he died. He hadn't wanted to return there, but there was no other option. "The one my godfather left me."

"How are you getting there?" Petunia asked again.

"Some people I know are fetching me," said Harry, "Mr. Weasley, the one that came here in my three years ago." Harry tried not to laugh, in the summer holidays before his fourth year at Hogwarts, the whole Weasley family had came to collect him and ended up blowing up the living room. "And Remus Lupin."

"The werewolf?" Petunia asked.

"Yeah…" Harry said, "How did you know?"

"Lily knew him." Petunia replied, avoiding Harry's eye. Harrys jaw dropped, it was one thing for Aunt Petunia to say werewolf, but she had also mentioned her sister, something that she had tried to avoid for the last sixteen years.

"He's not dangerous," Harry said quickly.

"I know," said Petunia, smiling. The kitchen door burst open and Dudley squeezed through, heading straight to the fridge, he stopped when he saw Harry standing there.

"What are you doing here?" he said.

"I live here, Dud, surely even you noticed that by now," Harry replied. He loved taunting Dudley, especially in front of Aunt Petunia. Dudley screwed his face up and clenched his fist. Harry raised his arm a little, revealing his wand, Dudleys little piggy eyes opened wide.

"Mum... He's got that thing out!" he squealed. Aunt Petunia stepped forward and glared at Harry.

"Put it away!" she said. "Now!" Harry laughed.

"Sorry," said Harry. "I was only messing." He heard the front door open; Uncle Vernon was home. Harry shoved the wand into his pocket and left the room, smiling at Uncle Vernon as he passed him in the hall.

That night, Harry didn't return to the living room. Instead, he went to his bedroom and packed all his things for the next day. He wasn't sure his Spellbooks had managed to find their way into the hallway, but by midnight he had carefully packed everything into his trunk and locked it. He placed Hedwigs cage carefully on top, leaving the door open for her return from the nights hunting. He opened his window and stared out into the darkness. It was strange how he had hated his life at the Dursleys for all these years, but now, he really thought he was going to miss living there.

"Happy Birthday," he said to himself, turning away from the window. He remembered the large amount of cakes and sweets that he had hidden under the loose floorboard in his bedroom. He pulled them out and left them on his bed, deciding that they would be his "Thank you" present for the Dursleys. There was a loud crash, Harry peered out of the window and saw Errol, the owl belonging to the Weasleys hovering outside his window. He grabbed the bird and pulled it inside, ripping the letter and package from its leg. The bird flew across the room and landed in the empty birdcage.

_Happy Birthday, Harry!_

_Great news, Dad has managed to book us apparition tests for the 2nd October! I still haven't told them our planning, I'm saving that until you and Hermione are here. Mum and Dad have been to the Order meetings and apparently Scrimgeour doesn't want Hogwarts to re-open! (Not that it will affect us in any way). _

_I hope you like the present, I've been working at Fred and Georges all summer to be able to buy it (Well, also to get away from all the wedding planning, it is completely ridiculous!) _

_See you soon,_

Ron.

Harry looked the package, feeling slightly guilty that Ron had had to work to buy him it. Ron's family was quite poor, they had to buy second-hand books and robes. Harry had always felt guilty that hidden under London he had a bank vault filled with golden galleons, silver sickles and gold knuts; he would gladly offer it all to the Weasleys, but he knew they wouldn't accept it. He opened the package, inside was a small book about quidditch (a wizarding sport played on broomsticks where there were four different balls, two of which tried to knock you off your broom) and a small, golden snitch. Harry let the snitch fly from his hand, then caught it again. He sighed, he would be missing a year of quidditch again. Harry let the snitch fly around the room while he read the book slowly. No other letters or packages arrived for him, Harry wasn't upset: he guessed that they would be given to him when he left the Dursleys. Harry caught the snitch and packed it into his case with the book, he took off his glasses and got into bed.

Harry woke early the next morning, he pushed his glasses onto his nose, changed into his clothes and went downstairs into the kitchen. Uncle Vernon was sat at the table reading the newspaper, Dudley was eating his breakfast and Aunt Petunia was washing up after Dudley.

"Morning," Harry said, he received no reply, but it didn't bother Harry, he never expected one. He grabbed a slice of toast from the toast rack and ate it slowly.

"Petunia tells me you're leaving today," Uncle Vernon said, his eyes never leaving the paper.

"Yeah," said Harry. "They should be here soon,"

"I should be getting to work," said Vernon. He folded the paper, said goodbye to Petunia and Dudley, then left. An hour later, the doorbell rang. Harry, who had been in his room, ran down the stairs, narrowly avoiding Dudley, who ran up to his bedroom clutching his bottom. Harry reached the front door and opened slowly. Two men were stood on the doorstep, one was Remus Lupin, his robes were shabbier and his hair was even greyer than when Harry had last seen him.

"Harry!" he said, shaking Harry's hand. "Great to see you!" The other man was wearing a suit, his yellowish eyes hidden behind his wire-rimmed glasses. "Arthur couldn't make it, luckily, Rufus stepped in to help."

"Happy Birthday, Harry," said Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister for Magic. Aunt Petunia approached the door, she saw the two men and gestured for them to enter.

"Harry, can I have a word?" Scrimgeour asked. Lupin nodded at Harry, then entered the house, Harry followed Scrimgeour and they stopped at the end of the garden path. "Harry, I want to know what you and Dumbledore were doing last year, and if you are continuing this year."

"I have told you before, that is between me and Dumbledore." Said Harry. "And I am completing it this year."

"But, Harry, we can help you." Scrimgeour said. Harry thought for a moment.

"Wait. Will you still help me if I don't tell you exactly what I'm doing?" Harry asked. Scrimgeour frowned.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Is this conversation just between us?" Harry asked, "I don't want anyone else knowing, it could ruin everything." Scrimgeour nodded. "Dumbledore found out something about Voldemort, how to kill him."

"And he thinks a sixteen-year old is the person to do that?" Scrimgeour laughed.

"I am the only person that can kill him." Said Harry. "There was a prophecy made before I was born. It said that the one to defeat Voldemort would be born at the end of July, whose parents had thrice defied him. Voldemort would mark me as his equal, but I would have a power he didn't know, and…" Harry paused for a moment. "Either must die at the hands of another, for neither can live while the other survives."

"So, you are the chosen one" Scrimgeour said.

"I guess so," Harry replied. "And I'm doing this alone, no one must know exactly what I am doing, but I might need some help."

"Well, Harry, the ministry will always be there to help you." Scrimgeour said. They both returned to the house, and found Lupin alone in the living room.

"Shall I go get my things?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Harry, We should leave soon." Lupin replied. He tried to pick his trunk up, but then realised he was seventeen, and allowed to do magic.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" he said. The trunk rose a few inches from the ground and Harry followed it downstairs, carrying Hedwigs cage (which was now occupied by both Hedwig and Errol) in his hand. He dropped them in the hallway and returned to the living room, to find that someone else now joined Scrimgeour and Lupin.

"Dobby?" Harry asked. The creature looked up, it had long ears and big green eyes.

"Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby squealed. "Dobby has been sent here by Professor McGonagall, sir, to give Harry Potter a warning."

"What's wrong?" asked Harry.

"She says that Dobby is to tell Harry Potter to leave now," said Dobby. "He-who-must-not-be-named knows and he is coming. Harry Potter, sir, you must leave."

"Thanks Dobby." Said Harry. The house-elf disappeared. Aunt Petunia entered the room. Lupin jumped to his feet.

"We'd better leave," he said.

"Wait," said Harry, looking at Petunia. "If Voldemort comes here, he'll kill you." Aunt Petunia let out a small scream. "Go to Mrs. Figgs." Aunt Petunia frowned. "She's a squib, that means she's got-"

"- magical parents, I know what a squib is," said Petunia.

"Just go there," Harry said. Petunia stood still for a moment, looking at Harry, who couldn't work out if it was fear or anger that he could see in her pale grey eyes. They walked into the hall. Lupin sent Harrys trunk and the birdcage to Harry's house first, then the two of them stepped outside. Harry could see Death Eaters at the end of the street, all wearing hoods, long black robes and masks. Harry looked from Lupin to Scrimgeour.

"I'll warn the Ministry," said Scrimgeour. "Hopefully, we will be able to catch some of these Death Eaters." There was a loud crack and Scrimgeour vanished.

"Harry, get inside, now!" Lupin whispered. The two of them entered the house again and closed the door behind them. Harry watched as Petunia ran out of the back door, shortly followed by Dudley, who was trying to stuff many different chocolate bars inside his pockets while running away. "Harry, quickly, grab my arm!" Lupin said, a hint of panic in his voice.

"No, we can catch some of them," Harry said, "If you go and alert the members of the order, I'll stay upstairs, by the time they find me, you will be here, and the aurors from the ministry." Lupin stared at Harry for a few moments, then nodded.

"You've been planning this, haven't you?" Lupin said, Harry nodded. He ran upstairs and into his bedroom, closing the door behind him. He sat against the wall opposite the door, and listened intently.

Just under ten minutes later, Harry heard a crash downstairs. He stood up and raised his wand, he quickly turned around and saw that more Death Eaters where gathering on the street, attacking many nosey neighbours that had came to see what was happening. Harry stepped away from the window, so that he was out of site and stood still.

"Look upstairs!" came a voice from downstairs. There were footsteps, many footsteps, it sounded as if there was at least five people coming upstairs. Harry quickly leapt across the room so that he was now stod behind the door. He pointed his wand at the window and muttered a spell. The glass shattered and flew outside.

"In here!" Shouted another voice. A female voice that Harry recognized. It was the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange, the murderer of Harrys godfather, Sirius Black, who was her cousin. Harry leaned back against the wall as the door slowly opened, not even daring to take a breath.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Harry leaned further back against the wall. Bellatrix entered the room, walking straight across to the window. She looked down into the street, then turned suddenly and pointed her wand to the door.

"Colloportus!" she shrieked. Harry heard a click and the door locked. He looked to Bellatrix, who was smiling. "Aw, did poor ickle Potter think he could hide from the nasty Death Eaters?" She laughed. "Crucio!"

"Protego!" shouted Harry, luckily he cast the shield charm just in time and the spell bounced off. "Stupefy!" he yelled, however Bellatrix deflected it.

"Tarantallegra!" she said. Harrys shield charm was not quick enough this time and his legs began to dance uncontrollably. He removed the spell and looked up at her.

"Crucio!" He yelled. Bellatrix flew back and hit her head on the wall behind her, knocking her unconscious. "Incarcerous!" Many different ropes appeared, binding Bellatrix together. Harry looked over at Bellatrix, he had wanted the cruciatus spell to work this time, however, catching Bellatrix was just as good, at least now would suffer in Azkaban for the rest of her life.

Suddenly the door burst open; Harry turned quickly and pointed his wand at the new arrival.

"Put that down, lad, or you'll take my good eye as well," a familiar voice growled. Alastor Moody was now stood in the doorway. He had grizzled grey hair and both his vivid blue magical eye and normal eyes was looking at Harry. He looked over Harry's shoulder at Bellatrix. "Nice job, Potter."

"What about the others?" Harry asked.

"They all got away, apart from this one and two others." Moody replied, his magical eye was now looking downstairs, where, Harry guessed, the rest of the order where. "Well, I'll be leaving now, Remus is waiting for you downstairs." There was a loud _crack _and Moody disappeared. Harry ran downstairs and into the living room, where Lupin was stood looking out of the window. He turned to face Harry, who noticed that there was a large gash on his cheek.

"Harry, are you alright?" Lupin asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, you?" Harry replied.

"Not bad," said Lupin. "We need to go, Voldemort will be angry about what's happened here today and you aren't safe anymore." Harry nodded. "Your aunt, uncle and cousin are moving away for a while, we decided it would be best for their safety. I must say that your uncle was not pleased, but I don't want to repeat his exact words." He smiled at Harry.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked. "Headquarters?" He had been hoping he wouldn't have to return to number 12, Grimmauld Place again, it was the home of his Godfather, his dead godfather.

"No, the order thinks that headquarters is not safe anymore," Lupin replied. "After all, Severus knows of its location, and, even though he cannot tell anyone else, he could still enter the house himself." Harry nodded; he did not want to speak about Severus. About Snape. The man who had killed Dumbledore. "The order are holding an important meeting that we should be at. We need to leave now." Lupin stood and walked over to Harry, he held out his arms and Harry grabbed it. A few seconds later Harry felt the familiar feeling of Apparition – like he was squeezing through a tight rubber tube.

The feeling finally stopped as Harry and Lupin hit the ground. Harry looked around him; they were in the village of Hogsmeade.

"Quick, Harry, we're late." Lupin said. The two of them ran to the school gates, where Professor Mcgonagall was waiting. She let the two of them in and they walked quickly up the long path to the castle in silence. They finally reached the oak front doors and Mcgonagall pushed them open.

"Potter, there are a few people in the great hall who would like to see you," said Mcgonagall. "Please tell them we will be there shortly, I need to talk to Remus first." Harry nodded and pushed open the doors into the great hall. The four house tables were not in the room; instead there was a large circular table in the centre of the room. Various members of the order; Moody, Tonks (whose hair was still bubblegum pink) Kingsley Shacklebolt, Bill Weasley, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Hagrid, the bartender from the Hogs Head (the pub in Hogsmeade) and many others occupied the table. They all looked at Harry when he entered, and Mrs. Weasley jumped up to Harry and ran to him.

"Harry, dear, are you alright?" she asked, pulling him into a tight hug.

"Yeah, I'm fine thanks, Mrs. Weasley," Harry replied, trying to free himself from her grip.

"Remus told us that the Death Eaters were at your Aunt and Uncles, I didn't know what to do!" She said. She looked at Harry for a few moments before speaking again. "You look terrible, have those relatives of yours even fed you this year, Harry? Would you like me to get the house-elves to bring some food up for you?"

"No, thanks, I'm fine Mrs. Weasley." Harry replied. A few minutes later, Lupin and Mcgonagall returned, the gash on Lupins cheek had been healed, but there was still a scar there.

"Potter, Mr. and Miss Weasley are waiting for in the Gryffindor common room, We will call you down when the meeting is completed," said Mcgonagall.

"Why can't I be in the meeting?" Harry asked. "I want to know what's happening."

"And you will, Harry, but not now," Lupin said, grasping Harrys shoulder.

Harry left the room; he slowly climbed the staircase up to the seventh floor. He stopped in front of the portrait of the fat lady, the entrance to the Gryffindor tower. He stood in front of it, realising that he did not know the password. The fat lady opened her eyes and saw Harry.

"Erm… I don't know the password," Harry said, the fat lady swung open. "Er.. Thanks." He climbed through the portrait hole and into the common room, where Ron Weasley greeted him. Ron was taller than Harry and had flaming red hair.

"Harry, you alright?" Ron asked,

"Yeah, I'm fine, you?" Harry replied.

"Not bad," Ron replied. "There's some food over there, I think mum got some of the house-elves to send it up." Harry smiled and walked across the table in the room, where there were a number of sandwiches. He helped himself to a few, then sat down in front of the now extinguished fire.

"So, where's Ginny?" Harry asked. He still felt guilty for ending it with her at the end of the previous school year, but it _was_ for her safety.

"I don't know, I think she's gone for a walk around the castle," Ron replied, Harry nodded, she had probably done this to avoid Harry. "Listen, mate, she told us what happened at the funeral." Harry nodded again, not sure what to say to Ron. "I don't mind," said Ron. "I know you are just trying to keep her safe, and she does too."

"So, what's happening with you and Hermione?" Harry asked, Rons ears turned red and he turned away from Harry.

"What about me and Hermione?" He asked, avoiding Harry's eyes.

"You know what I'm talking about," Harry replied, smiling. "All through last year there was something between you two. Actually, I think that it's been like that for a few years now."

"I don't know what's going to happen, really." Ron replied. His face and ears were now as red as his hair. "We've wrote to each over to the summer but -" He stopped suddenly as he saw Ginny enter the common room.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed. "I didn't think you'd be here yet!" She ran across the common room and sat in a chair next to Ron.

"Hi Ginny," Harry said, slightly surprised by how normal she was acting after what had happened at the end of last year.

"Where have you been?" asked Ron.

"Nowhere special," she replied. "I went to see Hagrid, but he wasn't at his hut."

"He won't be you idiot, he's at the meeting," Ron said. Ginny picked up a cushion and threw it at his head. "Anyway Harry, what happened at your Aunt and Uncles?" Ron asked. Harry explained what had happened, while the two of them listened.

"I can't believe you caught Bellatrix," said Ron.

The three of them spent the next hour talking about their holidays so far; Ron had been working at the Weasley Wizard Wheezes for most of the summer to avoid all the wedding plans, whereas Ginny had enjoyed helping her mother and Fleur plan the wedding. They were interrupted by the arrival of Dobby, who informed them that the meeting was over and they were wanted downstairs. They left the common room and made their way down to the Great Hall.

"Harry, Ron, Ginny, please sit down," said McGonagall as they entered the room, she conjured three chairs and they sat down. "Harry, we think that it would be unwise for you to return to number 12 Grimmauld Place."

"Where will I live then?" Harry asked, now he was slightly worried – this meant he was homeless.

"Well, after many meetings at the Ministry, Rufus Scrimgeour has decided that it would be unwise to open Hogwarts this year," Mcgonagall said. "Therefore, we think it would be a good idea for you to live here."

"Why can't he come and live with us, Mum?" Ron asked.

"Because, Ron, it will be safer for Harry here," Mr. Weasley replied. "This is now the new location for the Order so he will not be alone,"

"Well, can't I live here too?" Ron asked. "It would be better than leaving Harry to live alone, and as soon as I pass my apparition test, I can easily get back to the Burrow or to Fred and George's." Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looked at each other, as though they had been expecting this.

"Yes, you can." Mr. Weasley replied.

"What about me?" Ginny asked.

"You are not leaving the Burrow, Ginny," Mrs. Weasley said. "Ron is of age, so it is his choice, but you are still underage and have not completed your education."

"Molly, I think it would be a good idea for Ginny to live here," said Mcgonagall. "She can receive a proper education at Hogwarts, many of the teachers are still staying." Mrs. Weasley looked at her husband, biting her lip, Mr. Weasley nodded.

"Alright," said Mrs. Weasley. Ginny leapt to her feet to hug her mother.

"Now that is over, Harry, will you tell us what you and Albus were doing last year?" Mcgonagall said.

"No," Harry replied. "That was between me and him, i am not going to betray his trust. He said that i could tell Ron and Hermione, but no one else. If he would have wanted you to know, he would have told you."

"Potter, it would help if the Order knew, they are more advanced at wizardry than you are!" Mcgonagall said, raising her voice slightly.

"But i am the only one who can kill Voldemort," Harry replied, ignoring the flinching of the others around him. "That is what the prophecy said, that is what i am going to do."

"No one heard the prophecy, Harry. It was destroyed." Lupin said.

"Dumbledore heard it, it was made to him." said Harry. "I am the only one who can kill him and i'm going to do it." Silence fell upon the room, everybody exchanged nervous glances. "Now, if that is it, i need to unpack." Harry didn't wait for anyone to reply, he stood up and left the Great Hall.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Harry returned to the common room and climbed the dormitory stays up to the top until he reached to room that had been his for the last six years. He entered and found that his belongings had already been sent and where now at the end of his bed. Harry thought for a moment – _How had they got there? _He had left them in the hall at the Dursleys, then the Death Eaters had arrived. He eventually decided that Lupin must have sent them before he left, or took them with him when he left. He unpacked all his belongings – Now that there would only be him and Ron in the dormitory there would be a lot more space. One previous years he had shared it with the three other Gryffindor boys in his year; Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan.

Later that evening, Harry made his way down to the Great Hall for some food, Ron and Ginny hadn't returned that afternoon, so Harry guessed they had returned to the Burrow to collect there belongings. He found that the Great Hall was empty, so he decided to try the kitchens. He went down the corridor that was on the right of the main staircase until he found the painting of the fruitbowl. He tickled the pear, then pulled the green doorhandle that it had turned into and opened the door to the kitchens. There weren't as many House-elves in the kitchen as there was when Harry had visited in his fourth year, probably because there aren't any students. As soon as the House-elves saw him, they immedietely ran to him and dragged him to a seat.

"Harry Potter, Sir, What is Harry Potter doing at Hogwarts?" Said a familiar voice, Dobby.

"I live here, Dobby." Harry replied. "Thanks for saving my life, again." He looked down at Dobby, who had a large smile on his face.

"What does Harry Potter want?" Dobby asked.

"Surprise me," said Harry, all of the house-elves, apart from Dobby, ran off and started to collect pots, pans and many different ingredients. "So, Dobby, where have all the other house-elves gone?"

"They've left, Harry Potter, Sir." Dobby replied. "Professor McGonagall says that the school has closed so we have had to find new jobs sir."

"All of you?" Harry asked.

"No, there are some of us staying to help the teachers." Dobby replied. "Dobby is not one of them." He suddenly burst into tears. "D-D-Dobby must find a new master because he cannot stay here at Hogwarts, b-b-but no one wants Dobby, Sir, no one."

"I'll have you," said Harry. The elf looked up at Harry, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. He smiled at Harry.

"Will you. Harry Potter, sir?" Dobby asked. "Dobby does not want paying much or holidays as your friend says."

"Yes, I will Dobby," Harry replied. "How much do you want paying?"

"Dobby will be happy with one galleon a week and a day off a week," Dobby replied. "That is what Dobby used to get paid when Mr Dumbledore was his master."

"You will get that then," said Harry, he looked around at the other house-elves for a momenet. "Dobby, where is Kreacher?"

"Kreacher, Harry Potter Sir, Kreacher has not been seen in months." Dobby replied. "We does not know where he is."

"Kreacher!" Harry yelled, hoping the house-elf would come to him. Nothing happened.

"Harry Potter, Sir, a house-elf must obey its masters wishes, if a house-elf does not respond to and order, it must mean that Kreacher is... he is… dead!" Dobby said.

"Really?" Harry asked, Dobby nodded. Harry was slightly glad of this, he had not wanted Kreacher to be his, but he had no other option, if he had got rid of him, he could have told people of the orders plans because he was the house-elf at the original order of the phoenix. The house-elves brought Harry a large tray containing his food; steak, chips and peas.

"Thankyou," said Harry, accepting the tray. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a galleon and handed it to Dobby. "Here's your first months payment."

"Thank you Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby exclaimed. Harry left the kitchens with his lunch, feeling happier than he had in weeks.

Two days after Harry first arrived at Hogwarts, Hermione arrived. Harry, Ron and Ginny had already unpacked all their belongings and were living happily at the castle. Ginny had sent an owl to Ginny as soon as she had returned to the Burrow, telling her that the three of them were moving to Hogwarts and that she was also invited.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed as she entered the common room. "Are you alright? I read about what happened in the _Daily Prophet. _I can't believe you caught Bellatrix Lestrange!" She hugged Harry, then turned to Ron. "Hiya Ron, had a good summer?"

"Yeah, you?" Ron replied, his ears slowly turning red.

"Yeah, its been fantastic!" Hermione said. "Well, I'm going to unpack, then I'm going to find Mcgonagall and ask her about work this year!" Hermione ran off to the girls dormitories, her bags levitating behind her. As soon as she was out of earshot, Ron turned to Harry.

"She is mental, we don't have to go to school and _she _still wants to do work," he said. Harry laughed.

"Well, that's Hermione," he replied. "Listen, don't tell her about Dobby yet, you know she will go on about S.P.E.W."

That night, Harry and Ron found Hermione in the library, buried in books as usual. They had already had their dinner and had been given a plate of food to give to Hermione by the house-elves. The atmosphere in the library was a lot more relaxed without Madame Pince looking over their shoulders, and they were free to look in the restricted section, which was where they found Hermione.

"What are you doing in here anyway, Hermione?" Ron asked, peering over at the book Hermione was looking at.

"I'm trying to find what the rest of the Horcruxes could be, which is something you two should be doing!" She replied. "I've been looking at items belonging to Rowena and Godric -"

"Who?" said Ron.

"Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor, Honestly, Ron, I know you've heard of them!" Said Hermione. "Anyway, i can't find much, but there are still thousands of books to go, and i'm not getting any help from you two!"

"We've got our Apparition tests tomorrow! We've been worrying about that!" Ron exclaimed, though Harry could tell it was a lie.

"Sorry," said Hermione. "Its just we've got to find all these Horcruxes and work out how to destroy them, then i've got all my schoolwork today. And obviously we can't forgot about the final battle, i've been worrying about it for weeks."

"What's there to worry about?" Ron asked, flicking idly through the pages of the dusty old book he had picked up from in front of Hermione.

"What is there to worry about? What is there to worry about?" Hermione shouted, angrily. "Perhaps the fact that our best friend is going to duel with the darkest wizard in the magical world today, or maybe its that i just know that not everyone we care about, that we know, won't get out of this fight alive. The first war took so many lives and this one is worse. Voldemort has more followers, think of Greyback, what he did to Bill, and the giants -" She slammed the book she was reading shut and stormed from the library. Ron kicked the chair that was next to him and followed Hermione out of the library. Harry, deciding to leave the two of them to sort it out by themselves for a change, took the books that Hermione had been reading and moved across the library to sit at a comfy chair by the fireplace.

The next thing Harry knew, he was being shook awake by someone. He opened his eyes slowly, trying to adjust to the bright sunlight that now filled the room.

"Wake up, Harry!" Hermione shouted. Harry stood up and saw Hermione in front of him, tears running down her face.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, nervously. He knew this had nothing to do with Ron.

"Mr and Mrs Weasley," Hermione said weakly. "They're dead."

* * *

**A/N: Please Review... I want to know how good/bad it is and if people are actually reading this. I'm in the middle of the next chapter, but i want to know if anyone has actually read this before i put that one up. Thanks :p**


	4. Chapter 4

"What?" Harry said, not believing that Mr and Mrs Weasley could be dead.

"There was an attack, last night, at the Burrow." Hermione replied, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Death Eaters."

"Was anyone else hurt?" Harry asked, still thinking about Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

"Charlie was hit by four stunning spells at once, he's at St. Mungo's." Hermione replied. "Fred, George and Bill were all ok. Fleur was hit by a nasty spell, i don't know what's happened to her though. Then there's just Mr. and Mrs. Weasley." She paused for a moment before speaking again. "The order arrived, and some aurors from the ministry, one auror died, but no one else was hurt."

"Where's Ron, and Ginny?" Harry asked.

"Waiting downstairs, for you, we're getting a portkey to The Burrow, well, what's left of it." Hermione said. Harry stood and followed Hermione downstairs into the Entrance Hall. Ron and Ginny were stood in silence, their faces stained with tears, both of them staring at the ground. The four friends stood still, in silence, until Mcgonagall arrived a few minutes later, carrying an old candlestick.

"This will take you into Ottery St. Catchpole," Mcgonagall said. "We think it would not be safe to go straight to The Burrow, Remus and Alastor will be waiting for you." They all nodded, but nobody spoke a word. They all placed one finger on the candlestick and waited, for what seemed like hours, until they eventually began to move. Finally, they fell to the floor in the village of Ottery St. Catchpole and looked up to see Remus Lupin and Alastor Moody stood nearby. They followed the two men down the long road and towards the Burrow.

The Weasleys house was no longer there, instead there was a large pile of rubble on the floor, with smoke rising from the great mound. The surroundings were also different, in places where there had been trees, there was now nothing. Parts of the house and belongings of the Weasleys were scattered across the garden. In the far corner of the garden, there were three red headed people all sat on the grass. Noticing these, Ron and Ginny ran over to greet there brothers, leaving Hermione and Harry alone on what had been the yard, but was now just a pile of burning rubble. Harry looked over the ground at everything that was scattered over the Weasleys land and saw something familiar. The Weasley's Clock. The clock had many different hands, each belonging to one member of the Weasley family. They all pointed to different words around the clock like _"home" "school" "work"_ or, as all the hands were at the moment, _"Mortal Peril". _Harry noticed that there were only seven hands on the clock now, instead of the nine that were usually there. Mr. and Mrs. Weasleys hand had vanished from the clock face. Harry looked over to the Weasleys, and saw that Hermione had joined them, he left the clock where he had found it, choosing not to show it to them at that time, and joined them in the corner of the garden. Bill, Fred and George all looked tired. Harry looked to Bill, his face was badly scarred from the previous year when he had been attacked by Fenrir Greyback. On any other person, those scars would have looked horrible, but on Bill, along with his ponytail and fang earring, they looked normal. Fred and George were both staring at the ground, it didn't seem normal, seeing them without a grin on their faces or not causing mischief.

"We're coming to live at Hogwarts," Bill said, looking up at the ruins of his house. Harry nodded, not sure what to say to a person who had just lost their parents. Harry also looked around, this place had been more like home than anywhere else he had lived (except Hogwarts), he had spent many summers here with the Weasleys. Mr and Mrs Weasley had always been kind to him, letting him stay there and feeding him. They had heard how the Dursley's treated Harry and tried to take him away from there as soon as possible, they had been the closest thing to parents that Harry had.

Harry quickly wiped a tear from his eye and turned to the others. Ron and Hermione were looking at him, they both stood and walked away from the other Weasleys, Harry stood and joined them.

"Harry, we have got to start this search soon," Hermione said. "These attacks are going to continue and we are the only ones who know how to stop Voldemort. I think we should tell someone, like Lupin."

"No," Harry said. "If we tell the order, they will take over the search and ruin everything. The more people that know about the Horcruxes, the easier it will be for Voldemort to find out we know."

"But, Harry, none of us know how to destroy the Horcruxes," Hermione said.

"Fine, we will tell Lupin and Moody, as long as they promise not to tell the others," Harry said. Hermione nodded.

"Harry," Ron said, his voice was weak. "Dad booked us apparition tests for today, i think we should go. We need to pass the tests so that we can kill V-V-Voldemort," Both Harry and Hermione stared at Ron in shock, this was the first time in six years that Ron had said Voldemorts name.

"Alright, if you're sure," Harry replied.

"Standing here doing nothing isn't going to help," Ron muttered.

"I'll stay here with Ginny," Hermione said. Ron and Harry walked across towards Lupin and Moody, who were both stood on the other side of the garden. The two of them dodged all the rubbish that was infront of them and stopped in front of Lupin and Moody.

"We need to get to the ministry," Harry said. "Mr Weasley had booked us some apparition tests for today,"

"You don't have to go today, we can rearrange the test for another day," Lupin said, grasping Harrys shoulder.

"Yes we do, it is important for what we have to do this year," said Ron. Lupin looked at Moody, who's normal eye looked back while the magical eye was fixed on Harry.

"You'll have to do a side-along apparition," Moody said. Harry grabbed Lupins arm, while Ron grabbed Moodys. A few seconds later, they were in the Atrium at the ministry. The atrium wasn't as busy as it had been when Harry had came at the beginning of his fifth year when he was summoned for a hearing for using magic out of school.

"If you pass, apparate to Hogsmeade, go to the Hogs Head, the barman will send us a message so we can open the gates." Moody growled. "If you don't Floo to the Hogs Head."

"Ok, see you later," Harry said. Lupin and Moody disappeared, leaving Harry and Ron alone in the middle of the atrium.

* * *

An hour later, Harry and Ron, who had both passed their tests, apparated back to Hogsmeade. They quickly went into the Hogs Head, wondering why Moody had chose this pub, The Hogs Head was usually the place where strange creatures and darker wizards met, the Three Broomsticks would have been a better place. They both entered and walked across to the bar, the barman appeared from the back room. He looked very familiar, but Harry couldn't work out where he recognised him from. The old man nodded at the two teens, then pointed to an old staircase leading upstairs. Harry and Ron looked at each other nervously, but followed the man upstairs. The stairs led to a long, dusty corridor with many doors leading off of it. The man went into the first room, Harry and Ron followed. The room was extremely familiar, Harry felt that he had been here before. He had been here before, in Dumbledore's pensieve. This was the room where the prophecy about Harry and Voldemort had been made, however, now it looked completely different. The bed and most of the floor was covered in various packages all wrapped badly in the same brown paper. 

"Harry Potter," the man said, he was now sat at a desk on the far end of the room. "As you may or may not know, i am Aberforth Dumbledore -" So that was where Harry recognised him from, he looked very similar to Albus Dumbledore, Harry wondered why he had never worked this out before. "- It is my responsibility to distribute my brothers belongs now that he has left. To you, in particular, he left a large number of items." Harry nodded. Aberforth stood and shuffled across the dusty floor to the bed. He picked up a large square package from the top of the pile, and a few smaller ones from underneath it. He took them over to Harry and dropped them at his feet. "In these packages are some very valuable items. The first of these items is Albus' pensieve and a large number of memories that may come in useful this year." He winked at Harry - did this mean he knew about the Horcruxes? "Another item he has left you is a certain ring that once belonged to Marvolo Gaunt. And also there is a large amount of items from his office that he thought you might need."

"Thanks," Harry said. Aberforth shuffled across the room again and pulled out a few more packages, he returned to the two teens and piled them into Rons arms.

"These packages contain a large number of books that may be useful as well," Aberforth said. "There is also one other item that did not belong to Albus that i would like you to have." He walked across to the desk and opened the bottom drawer, he pulled out a small box and gave it to Harry. Harry opened it carefully, slowly he pulled out a locket. He turned the locket over in his hands and saw the slytherin mark on the back, he opened the locket, the hinges were slightly loose and the inside was scorched black. This had been a horcrux. Harry looked up in shock.

"I managed to get this from Mundungus Fletcher," Aberforth said. _Mundungus? _Thought Harry, what was Mundungus doing with this locket? "He had stole it from the house of black, how it got there, i do not know."

Harry thought for a moment, wondering how the locket had found its way into Sirius' house, his house. "Regulus Black." Harry muttered. He turned to Ron. "R.A.B! That's it, Regulus Black!" He turned back to Aberforth, who was looking slightly confused. "Thankyou," This was a bit of good luck, three horcruxes down, three to go, plus the part in Voldemorts body.

"Now, i think you should return to the castle," Aberforth said. Ron and Harry left the Hogs Head, carrying the many packages that Aberforth had gave them and began the slow walk up to the Hogwarts castle.

* * *

**A/N - Ok, i know i put a lot into this chapter, but if i had put it all into different chapters, they would have been small and i didn't want to make these bits any longer than they are. ****I'm trying to write these as quick as i can. I have already wrote the last few chapters, so i know what i want to happen in the fanfic, its just putting everything in thats the hard part.**

**Please review... I want to know what you think about it/what i could improve. ****Thanks **


	5. Chapter 5

Later that evening, a feast was sent up to the Gryffindor common room, where all of the Weasleys were now staying. Fleur had returned, and even though she was showing no signs of injury, she looked very pale and tired. Charlie was still in St. Mungo's, but the healers had told the rest of the family to leave until he woke. Harry and Ron had took everything Aberforth had gave them into their dormitory and hadn't shown Hemione yet. They had been joined by various members of the order; Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley and Mcgonagall. After everyone had finished eating, they sat down in the chairs by the fire.

"Bill," said Mcgonagall. "The order need to know what happened at The Burrow." She looked over towards Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, who were all sat together. "You don't need to hear this, it would be best if you returned to the dormitories."

"No," said Bill. "If they want to know what happened, they can." He paused for a moment before speaking. "We were all in the kitchen, last night, discussing the wedding plans. Dad had just returned from work and Fred and George had arrived earlier yesterday with some things we ordered from Diagon Alley. Amos Diggory arrived just after dark. He said that there were Death Eaters in Ottery St. Catchpole, they had already attacked the Lovegoods, who lived nearby, but they had managed to escape. Amos had also escaped their attack but had came to warn us. Just after he explained it all, there was a loud explosion and the house started to collapse. Me and Charlie ran outside, Mum and Dad shouted us back, we ignored them, and thats when we saw them." He stood and began pacing up and down. "Mum told us to leave, to come here, but me and Charlie started firing hexes at them. We knew we were outnumbered, there were over twenty of them. Fleur and Fred and George helped us. Fleur was hit and was sent flying back into the house, then the house collapsed completely. Mum and Dad tried to pull her out, then the Death Eaters fired all those stunners at Charlie. Mum ran forward, she thought he was dead, and she was hit by the curse. Me, Fred and George carried on fighting, Dad ran towards mum, but he was hit too. That was when the Aurors arrived, Amos had gone to the ministry to get help." There was an awkward silence in the room. Bill sat back down next to Fleur, who was crying quietly, and placed his arm around her.

"The Order will be having a meeting tomorrow," Mcgonagall said. "These attacks are getting more serious, and the ministry aren't doing nothing to prevent them."

"It's not the Ministrys fault!" Bill exclaimed suddenly, making Fleur jump. "I said that we should fight them, Mum and Dad told us to apparate away from it, but i didn't listen, they couldn't leave without me!"

""What happened today was your fault, the orders fault." George said, who had been sat away from the others in silence. "Bill and Charlie came and asked for the protection spells, but it didn't happen, and now our home and belongings are ruined, our parents were killed and Charlie is in St Mungo's."

"Molly and Arthur refused to let us put those spells on the Burrow," Lupin said. "They didn't think that anything would happen, we convinced Molly and Arthur to let Ron and Ginny stay here, they aren't as experienced as the others and at least they would be safe here. Fred and George had been living at Diagon alley, so they would also be safe. If there was an attack, Molly and Arthur knew what they had to do, they had a portkey that would have took you all here, obviously the plan failed when you went outside."

"Then it is my fault," Bill muttered.

"None of this is your fault, or the orders, or the ministrys." Lupin said. "It's Voldemorts" Most of the people around him flinched. "You did what many of us would have done, you tried to defend your home and your family."

"There is nothing you can do about that now," said Kingsley. "Obviously everybody is upset by what has happened today but you need to be thankful that you are still alive and now we have to start thinking about Voldemort -" A few people flinched again. "- and his Death Eaters." Everyone turned to Harry, who had been sitting away from the others, silently, listening to their conversation. "Potter, you can't keep this from us any more."

"Do you really think that three teenagers will be able to stop the darkest wizard in the world today?" Mcgonagall said. "Even if the prophecy does say that you are the only one that can kill him, we can help you with whatever you had to do."

"There is someone else helping me, Dumbledore," Harry said, "Aberforth Dumbledore, me and Ron went to see him earlier."

"Well, i suppose that makes things a little better," said Mcgonagall, but there was a hint of anger in her voice.

"If we need help, we will ask you," said Ron. "It was my mum and dad who were killed in that fight, if i thought we needed help, i would have asked you. But we don't, not yet." He looked to Hermione, then back around the room. "We're going to Godric's Hollow, tomorrow," Harry stared in shock at Ron, they hadn't planned it yet, Harry had been trying to avoid going to Godric's Hollow, to where his parents were murdered. He did want to go there, but didn't know if he could face it, not yet. "We were meant to be going after the wedding, but because thats been delayed, we're going tomorrow. Only for a few days."

"I've found the address," Hermione said. "We're going there the muggle way, we'll apparate to the ministry, then catch the train up there. We'll only be there about a week, then we'll be back."

"I though it was destroyed after what happened there," said Fred.

"Only part of it, but it was rebuilt," said Lupin. "We knew that one day, Harry would want to go back there, maybe even live there one day. There was only a bit of minor damage inside, but that was easily repairable, i had been there so many times before, before Lily and James went into hiding that is, i knew exactly what it looked like.." He stopped suddenly when he realised everyone else was watching him. "Can i come with you?" Ron and Hermione looked at each other nervously. Harrys eyes remained focused on Lupin.

"Sure." Harry said. After a while, the common room slowly emptied. Fred and George returned to the shop, Mcgonagall and the other members of the order slowly left, they were staying somewhere else in the castle. Hermione and Ginny returned to their dormitories and Bill and Fleur left, they were staying in the Ravenclaw dormitories. Eventually, Harry and Ron retreated to their dormitory and fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

Harry woke the following morning with a smile on his face. He was going to Godric's Hollow today and even Rons thunderous snoring couldn't stop him. He felt slightly guilty, Mr and Mrs Weasley were only killed yesterday, and no one should be so cheerful, but Harry knew that this was the start of what was eventually going to be the end. The end of Voldemort and of the second war, if everything went to plan. If not, he had always wanted to visit his parents house and graves and Harry saw it as a chance to do one of the many things he wished to do before he died. He got out of bed and changed into his clothes, then left the room and Rons loud, continuous snoring behind. The common room was also empty, Harry sat himself on his favourite chairs by the fireplace. 

For how long he sat in silence, Harry didn't know, but eventually he was disturbed by footsteps from behind him. He turned to see who it was that was behind him, and saw Hermione. She was still wearing her pyjamas and a dressing gown and her hair was more bushy than Harry had ever seen.

"Morning," he said. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Oh, hi, Harry," she replied. She crossed the room and sat in a chair by the window, Harry also crossed the room and joined her near the window. "I couldn't sleep well, haven't been able to really for a while. I always come down here and wait for the Daily Prophet to arrive, waiting for more bad news i guess." She smiled weakly, then turned towards the window. "What about you?"

"I just woke up early," Harry said, shrugging. "Not sure why, combination of excitement for where we are going today and what happened to Mr and Mrs Weasley yesterday, and i've been worrying about the Horcruxes."

"Don't worry Harry, we'll be fine with the horcruxes," Hermione said reassuringly. "And its normal to be excited for whats happening today, even after what happened yesterday. Remember when your parents died, that night everybody was too bothered about the fact Voldemort had dissappeared than the fact that you were an orphan."

"Yeah, i guess," said Harry. He noticed a small brown speck slowly approaching the castle, he pointed it out to Hermione, who flung the window open and caught the bird before it even had a chance to slow down. She ripped the newsletter from its leg and placed a knut into the small pouch on the other leg, then released the bird. The bird, looking slightly bewildered, immediately shot out of the window and into the distance. Harry looked at Hermione in amazement.

"You'd be good at quidditch," He said. Hermione frowned at him.

"No i wouldn't," She replied. "Hopeless on a broom." She smiled then unfolded the paper. The smile soon disappeared from her face.

"What is it?" Harry asked, knowing that something was wrong. "Whats happened?" He sat on the arm of Hermione's armchair and looked down at the paper.

**Minister for Magic Tells Wizarding World of Secret Weapon:**

**Harry Potter.**

_Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour called an emergency meeting after the events yesterday. Death Eaters, the famous followers of you-know-who, attempted to attack three wizarding families in a short space of time. Luckily, two of the families escaped unscathed, one of these families was not so lucky. Molly and Arthur Weasley were busy at home, planning the wedding of eldest son Bill, when the death eaters attacked. Not only was their house completely ruined, however, Mr and Mrs Weasley were both killed during yesterdays events. Second eldest son Charlie was also injured and is currently in St. Mungo's, Healers have refused to comment. The Weasleys were a well-known wizarding family, especially for being friends with the famous Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived. Or The Chosen One as many today are now calling him._

_This statement is indeed true._

_At the meeting, Scrimgeour told the _Daily Prophet _of a prophecy that was made over seventeen years ago. This prophecy declared that Harry Potter was the only one who could kill you-know-who and this, we think, is the reason why you-know-who killed James and Lily Potter on H'alloween 1981. _

_"Harry Potter intends to fulfill this prophecy and the ministry has promised to help with all he needs," says Scrimgeour. "I met Potter a few days ago, a few moments before the attack on his Aunt and Uncle's house, he told me the entire details of the prophecy, these, however, for obvious reasons, i cannot explain."_

_So far, we have been unable to question Potter or those close to him on this matter, following the attack he left with Remus Lupin, a close friend of Harrys who was also friends of his parents. We assure everyone that Potter is safe and is probably preparing for what will be the most difficult year yet. Potter has already faced you-know-who five times and lets hope that this is the last. _

_For more information on yesterdays attacks, turn to page 5. For more information on the "chosen one" turn to page 6, 7, 8 and 9._

"Oh my god," Hermione said. "I can't believe he'd do something like this!" She threw the paper on the floor and put her head in her hands. Harry picked up the paper and flicked through the pages, there were lots of articles about him, from his fourth year at Hogwarts, when he had been entered into the Triwizard Tournament, from his fifth year where no one had believed that Voldemort returned and from his sixth year. Then there was a picture of Rufus Scrimgeour, smiling, as though nothing had happened at all.

"I thought he was ok," Harry said. "Obviously just wants me as his poster boy, still." Harry sat in silence for a while, the newspaper still in his hands. "I should have guessed really, he wanted me to tell him at Dumbledore's funeral, then when he came on my birthday, i guessed he was ok, Lupin had let him come so i thought it was alright."

"This changes everything." Hermione said. "Voldemort will want to know what the prophecy said, he'll want revenge even more, Harry. Its not safe for you to leave the castle. Its not safe for any of us. He knows who's in the order, he'll catch anyone who could give him information."

"So we're stuck in the castle?" Harry asked. Hermione shrugged.

"Probably," she said. "After Lupin and Mcgonagall and the others have read this there'll be a meeting. But one things definate, we won't be able to go to Godric's Hollow, for a while."

* * *

**A/N -Sorry this took a while to put up, i was banned from the computer. All reviews and suggestions welcome. **


	6. Chapter 6

At midday, a meeting was called in the Great Hall. Everyone who was staying in the castle and a few from Hogsmeade were invited. Harry saw that there were more people than he had thought, obviously, the castle was being used as training facilities.  
At the front of the hall, at the staff table, sat Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lupin, Tonks, Moody, Mcgonagall, Bill and Aberforth Dumbledore. Mcgonagall stood and the crowd of people sat in front of the table were silent and still.  
"Thankyou for cancelling your tasks to come to this meeting," she said. "Obviously, we have a very important matter to discuss. First, however, I would like to officially announce that, following the death of Albus, our previous leader, last year, the new leader of the Order of the Phoenix is Alastor Moody!" There was a loud applause as everyone in the room stood and congratulated him. Moody stood and walked out to the front of the staff table, Mcgonagall sat down.  
"Well, you have all read todays Daily Prophet and we have a major topic to discuss," Moody growled, pacing up and down. "Rufus Scrimgeour, who we foolishly believed was now a friend, has betrayed us. The Daily Prophet has put us all the members of the Order of the Phoenix in great danger. Voldemort - " Many people flinched at the sound of his name. " – will be furious. This prophecy is very important to him and he will want to know the contents. He knows who we are and will think that we all know. For this reason, none of us can leave the castle openly. We have explored the castle thoroughly and blocked all possible ways of entry." Harry had a sudden thought, everyone knew that Snape knew of the secret passage underneath the Whomping Willow, but did he know of the others that led into the castle? "Most of you were students here, so we ask, if you knew of any other way to get into the castle, speak to me after the meeting, it could mean the difference between life and death." There was an uneasy silence in the room, the only sound was that of Moodys footsteps; he was still pacing up and down. "We must remain in the castle for a few weeks, until, at least, the news of the prophecy has died down. No one is allowed on the grounds, even Hagrid has been asked to live in the castle. Thankyou and goodbye." Moody returned to his seat and stared out into the crowd with his normal eye, while he magical eye was focused on Harry. Harry could feel his stare and, eventually, stood and walked over to Moody.  
"Something on your mind, Potter," Moody asked.  
"I have a map of the school," Harry said quickly. "It shows secret passages into the school, there is one that leads into Honeydukes that is still open, as far as I know. There are also a few others. I'll go fetch it for you."  
"Thankyou, Potter," said Moody. "However, i have already been told of these tunnels by Remus. I will, however, be wanting the map to check for intruders and also to check up on you and your friends." He smiled at Harry.

* * *

The next few weeks for Harry at Hogwarts were mainly spent in the library. Harry, Ron and Hermione spent their time lookig for items belonging to Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw and also trying to find the location of Helga Hufflepuffs cup. Ginny joined in at first, then, when she realised that the three friends were never going to reveal exactly what they were up to, she began to spend the days with Fleur and, when she wasn't working, Tonks. Hermione, who seemed to know the library inside out, ordered Ron and Harry to different sections of the library each day and would then disappear to look at books at another end of the library. If she caught Harry and Ron talking, or doing anything apart from reading the books, she would not be happy. 

Ron was being a lot quieter than usual, and spent his evenings with the rest of the Weasleys. Harry and Hermione stayed away and respected this, for they knew that the Weasleys were still grieving after the loss of their mother and father, even though they did not like to openly.

After three weeks stuck in the castle, there was some sign of good luck. Not only had Harry, Ron and Hermione found out about various items belonging to Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw and began tracking their location, but one dull afternoon, Lupin came to the three of them in the library with some news.

"We're going to Godric's Hollow," Lupin said, there was a smile on his face. "It is obvious that you have been working hard and we thought you needed a little break. Security has been set up there, anti-apparition jinxes and the whole lot, so we think it will be completely safe." Lupin then sent the three friends off to pack and told them that they would meet in the entrance hall at midnight; It would be safer to leave then, apparently. Harry and Ron returned to their dormitory and Harry immedietely began sorting out what he would need. Ron, however, did not.

"Harry, mate, I can't go, sorry," Ron said. "I want to go with you, but i need to be here with everyone else," Harry nodded, he understood, but wasn't sure what to say. "I'll try to find out about those items, when i can." Harry continued to pack in silence, while Ron returned to the common room. When Harry had finished packing, he took his bag down to the common room, where Hermione was waiting for him. It was only the early evening, so the two of them decided to go for a walk around the castle until they needed to meet Lupin.

It was already beginning to get dark and the candlelit halls were still quite dull. Harry and Hermione both lit their wands and wandered around together. They spoke about the Horcruxes and also about the Weasleys. Eventually, they stopped when they realised they had reached a dark gloomy corridor that Harry recongised. It was the corridor that led to the Slytherin common room, where Harry had been in his second year.

"Come on, Harry, lets go," Hermione said. The two of them turned to leave, when suddenly they heard voices behind them. Both of the turned back to see Mcgonagall and Moody walking towards the door to the Slytherin common room, in between them was a small person, about the same size as Harry. His blond hair was dirty and out of place, his robes were torn, he was being supported by Mcgonagall and Moody on either side of him and he kept stumbling. Mcgonagall was biting her lip as she looked down at the person next to her, she looked at Moody with a worried expression on her face.

"Parsletongue," Moody growled. In what appeared to be a plain stone wall, a door appeared, the three people disappeared into it and the door closed behind them. There was silence in the corridor, Hermione turned to face Harry.

"Harry, did you see who that was?" She asked, looking nervous.

"Malfoy." Harry muttered, his eyes focused on the wall.

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**A/N - Oh yes... he is back. I'm writing whenever i get the time, so sometimes it might take on day, sometimes a week to get the next chapter up. **

**5 reviews so far, Thanks to those who have reviewed. Please, if you have the time review, i want to know what everyone thinks and all suggestions are welcome. **

**Thanks for reading.**


	7. Chapter 7

Harry turned away from the wall and looked at Hermione.

"What do you think he's doing here?" She asked.

"I don't know," Harry said. His mind was racing. Suddenly, he remembered that night on the Astronomy Tower, Malfoy had lowered his wand, just before the death eaters arrived, he cornered Dumbledore, then Dumbledore talked to him. He hadn't wanted to kill Dumbledore anyway, and was going to change his mind. But what was he doing here? Surely he should be with Voldemort, unless, maybe Voldemort knew he didn't do it?

"Shall we go ask?" Hermione asked.

"No," said Harry. "Leave it, for now, don't tell anyone we saw it." Hermione nodded and the two of them ran off to the Entrance Hall, where they found Lupin waiting.

"Are we all ready to go?" Lupin asked, in his hand he had an old battered suitcase. "Where's Ron?"

"He isn't coming," Hermione said. "How are we getting there?"

"I asked Hagrid to fetch us a few Thestrals," Lupin said. "But no need to worry, we won't be riding them, we'll have a carriage."

Within twenty minutes the three of them were in the carriage on there way down the path to the school gates. The gates opened before them and the Thestrals immedietely took off into the air. The cold wind hit Harrys face like needles. He pulled his scarf up to his face and looked through the window to the ground. There were many lights flashing past below, all the streetlights and cars, mainly muggles who knew nothing of Voldemort or the war. Harry couldn't stop thinking about Malfoy. He had looked terrible, obviously he had been through many troubles since Harry last saw him.

The bright lights beneath them slowly disappeared and Harry realised they were passing over hills and fields. He wasn't sure how far they had travelled, it seemed impossible to count. He remembered his journey to the Ministry of Magic in his fifth year on Thestrals, it hadn't took them very long to reach London from Hogwarts, and Harry was sure Godric's Hollow wouldn't be that far away. Not long after, he discovered he was right, the Thestrals landed softly on the ground and the carriage stopped moving. The three of them stepped out into the dark street and looked around them. They were in a small village with only a few small cottages around them. There was also a church, a shop, a small post office and a pub. There weren't many houses where they were, but Harry could see more in the distance, Silhouetted against the midnight sky. Harry and Hermione follow Lupin down the road and towards the pub. However, they did not enter by the front door, instead, Lupin led them down a small passage between the pub and the shop next door and then up a narrow staircase.

"Alohomora!" He muttered, pointing his wand at the old door. They heard the lock click and Lupin pulled the door open. Hermione entered first, followed by Harry, then Lupin. The room was dimly lit. There was a small fireplace at one end of the room giving out a little light, but nothing else. In front of the fireplace there were a number of armchairs, one of them was occupied.

An old man sat there, he had a short beard and a bald head. There was a pipe hanging from his open mouth. Lupin, realising he was asleep, slammed the door shut. The man awoke immediately.

"Remus!" He exclaimed, jumping up. He was quite short and had a large round belly. "I wasn't expecting you for a while!"

"Well, obviously not, Alfred," Remus said. He crossed the room and shook the mans hand, then turned to Harry and Hermione. "Harry, Hermione, this is Alfred Morgen. He is a good friend of mine and was, once, a friend of your parents, Harry." Alfred suddenly noticed Harry and Hermione stood in the shadows.

"Well, hello!" He exclaimed. "My, you must be freezing! It's a rather chilly night. Come and sit by the fire and i will make you a cup of Hot Chocolate, Remus, would you like one too?" He didn't wait for a response, instead he ran off to the other end of the room, where there was a small kitchen, and began to make them all a drink. Harry and Hermione crossed the room and sat in one of the huge armchairs, which, they found, were a lot comfier than they looked. A few moments later, Alfred returned, carrying a tray with four steaming cups of Hot Chocolate with small marshmallows on the top. Harry gladly accepted and found that it soon warmed him up. Lupin and Alfred also sat down and drank their cups slowly.

"Do you know, Harry," said Alfred. "You look just like your father, may he rest in peace. If i hadn't known better, i'd have thought it was him that just walked through that door!" He laughed, then continued drinking. "How did you get here then? Didn't take you long, did it? Minerva sent a message as soon as you left saying look out for you, i wasn't expecting you so soon!" He asked, turning to face Lupin.

"Thestrals," Lupin said. Alfred nodded, then turned to Harry and Hermione.

"Where's the third?" He asked.

"He couldn't make it," Lupin said. "Ron is Molly and Arthurs youngest boy, terrible what happened, he thought he should stay with his family."

"Terrible happenings indeed!" Exclaimed Alfred. "Did you hear about those poor muggles up north? Tortured by those Death Eaters! Foul folk, they are." Lupin nodded. "And what about Narcissa Malfoy?" Harry and Hermione looked at each other.

"What happened to her?" Harry asked.

"Didn't you hear?" Alfred said. "Gone. No one knows where. Everyones saying she's dead, others saying she's in hiding. But her lad, what's his name? Draco, that's it. He were there that night Dumbledore died and no ones seen 'im since them. They're saying he's ran off with the Death Eaters, that Severus. Terrible." Harry and Hermione looked at Lupin, who was simply staring at Alfred, he made no sign that he knew where Malfoy was, but then, Harry thought, maybe he didn't.

"Well, it's gettin' late and i've gotta be up early tomorrow," Alfred said. "When you've all finished you drinks, Bedrooms are that way," he pointed towards a door near the kitchen. He then turned to Lupin. "Remus, you'll be wanting a breakfast in the morning, i take it?" Again, he didn't wait for an answer. "I'll bring it in dead on nine o'clock, or i'll get one of the house-elves to bring it up." He turned and disappeared through the door leading to the bedrooms. A few moments later, Harry, Hermione and Lupin placed their cups in the sink and picked their bedrooms for the night. Harry soon fell asleep and had the first dreamless nights sleep he had had in a long time.

* * *

**A/N - Three chapters up in a weekend, not bad. I should really go out more though. Once again, please, if you have the time review. This is my first fanfic and i want to know what you all think!!!**

**Thanks for reading. Chapter 8 up in the next few days, i hope. **


	8. Chapter 8

The following morning, Harry woke up quite late, he changed quickly and left his bedrooom. When he arrived in the lounge, he found that Lupin wasn't there. Hermione was busy reading todays Daily Prophet.

"Anything else happened?" Harry asked, helping himself to a piece of toast from the toast rack.

"Nothing much," Hermione said. "A few more muggle attacks, but no murders. St Mungo's have got a whole floor just for the muggles now, there have been so many attacks." Hermione flicked through the pages. "Oh my god, an attack at Diagon Alley, at the Weasley Wizard Wheezes."

"What?!" Harry exclaimed, jumping up.

"The twins are ok, their assistant was stunned," Hermione said. "And the twins saved the day, apparentley. They used their own stock against the attacker and caught him."

"A Death Eater?" Harry asked curiously.

"Not sure," Hermione said, her eyes quickly scanning the page. "They didn't look like a death eater, it was some foreign person, from Durmstrang probably."

"So Voldemorts got more than just the English on his side now," said Harry. "Where's Lupin?"

"He went for a walk, said we should meet him at half 10 by the post office, and you need to take your invisibility cloak." Hermione said, her eye not moving from the paper. Harry looked at the clock on the wall.

"Well, it's quarter past, so do you want to go now?" Harry asked. "We can have a look around the village."

"Sure, go get your cloak," Hermione said. She placed the paper on the table and drank the rest of her coffee. Harry ran to his room and grabbed his cloak, then returned to the lounge. He and Hermione left and slowly climbed down the long staircase and out into the centre of the village. It reminded Harry of Hogsmeade, only less magical. There were many muggles going about on ordinary day to day business, unaware of the war that was going on in the wizarding world. A few stared at Harry, then quickly ran off, obviously they had known James. There were about twenty houses altogether in the village. Most of them were close together but there were a few away from the others in secluded spots. Harry and Hermione wandered around the village for a bit, then went into the shop. Luckily, Hermione had bought some of her pocket money from home, in english currency. They bought a drink and some chocolate, then left the shop and found Lupin waiting outside, talking to one of the locals.

"Ah, Harry, there you are!" Lupin exclaimed, seeing Harry leaving the shop. "This is Lucy, she was a friend of your mothers," Lupin gestured towards the woman he was talking to, she was tall, taller than Lupin with long blonde hair.

"You have your mothers eyes," She said vaguely, in a dream-like voice that reminded Harry of Luna Lovegood.

"Nice to meet you," said Harry.

"Well, we must be off, Lucy," said Lupin. "We're going to his parents home and graves today," Lucy nodded and wandered away. Harry, Lupin and Hermione began walking away. "The two of you need to be careful around here, they're all muggles, except Albert, of course, so we have to be extremely careful." Harry and Hermione nodded and the three of them set off down a long winding road.

After about ten minutes, they passed a sign that read "_Godric's Hollow" _and a few minutes later, they reached a small cluster of five cottages all in a circle around a water fountain in the centre. All were identical, they all had thatched roofs and small neat gardens. Harry felt as though he had stepped into some kind of fairytale. Lupin led them to the third cottage, they stepped through the gate and into the perfectly kept garden. Harry noticed there were lilies growing around the edge of the garden.

"We planted those in memory of your mother," Lupin said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a key. "A gardener came round each week to do the garden and make everything look, well, presentable."

He opened the door, then stepped aside. Harry stepped in first and found that he was stood in a hallway. On the walls, there were pictures of James and Lily from school, their wedding day, pictures of baby Harry, pictures of the Marauders. All we muggle photo's, of course, because of their muggle friends. The staircase leading upstairs was in front of him, but Harry decided to look downstairs first. Harry stepped through the door to his left and into the lounge. The lounge was a very large room, but there was little in it. The walls were covered in a pale pink wallpaper, and the curtains and carpet were the same colour. There was only a small tv and a large sofa, as well as a small table next to the sofa. Across the far wall there was a large bookcase containing many muggle books and magazines. There was another door leading into the kitchen, Harry entered and saw that it was completely spotless, like the lounge. It was long and must have stretched from one end of the house to the other. There was an old-fashioned wooden table in the centre of the room with four chairs placed around it. There were wooden cupboards around the edge of the room and a large stove. There was a large refrigerator and a large pantry. Harry returned to the lounge and found that Lupin was sat alone on the sofa, he looked as though he had drifted off into a dream. Hermione was looking at the bookcase, apparently interested by the large amount of muggle books that James and Lily had owned. Lupin suddenly noticed Harry and turned to him.

"You alright?" He asked. Harry nodded, he was unable to say anything. He couldn't believe that he had lived in this home. He left the lounge and crossed the hall and found that he was in a room where his mother and father had apparentley kept all their magical items _- "That'll explain the lock on the door" _Thought Harry. There were various racing brooms on the walls and magical pictures, the same as those in the hall only moving. There was also a large collection of wizarding magazines and books. Harry noticed a large cabinet on the far end of the room, he crossed the room and saw that it held quidditch balls. All of them had the name _James Potter _written on them.

"Thoses were your fathers," Lupin said, he was now stood in the doorway. "When you were older he was going to get your name on them, so it read Harry James Potter." Harry turned and looked around the room once more. He noticed a small plaque by the door, he walked across the room and saw that there were some tiny letters in the centre it, they read;

_R.I.P._

_James Potter_

_Who died in this spot defending_

_his wife and son._

"So this is where he died?" Harry asked. Lupin nodded. He quickly wiped a tear from his eye, then went through hallway and out of the house. Hermione followed, Harry however looked around him. This was where his father had died.

Harry turned quickly and ran up the stairs, he found himself on a long corridor, there were two doors to his left and three to his right. He took the first on the left and found himself in what appeared to be his parents room. There was a large kingsize bed that filled most of the room. There was also a large wardrobe, next to it was a dressing table. Harry crossed the room and sat on the stool by the dressing table. There were many different pieces of jewellery on the table, there was also bottles of perfume and many other items, all his mothers. There was also a picture of his mother and father on their wedding day, Sirius was in the background. Everything looked so peaceful. Harry couldn't believe that his parents had died in this house.

He stood and left the room, then opened the door to the next room. It was the bathroom. He closed the door again and turned to face the door opposite. He opened it slowly and saw the room he had been waiting for. His room. There was a large cot on the far side of the room, above it hung a mobile with many quidditch items hanging from it - miniture brooms and balls. The curtains were blue with large golden snitches on and the wallpaper was also blue. It had been bewitched to make the brooms fly around him. In this room there was another plaque, he crossed to read it slowly.

_In memory of _

_Lily Potter,_

_who died here defending her son._

_May she rest in peace. _

Harry stared at the plaque for a few moments, then turned to see Hermione stood in the hallway. He quickly wiped a tear that was falling from his eyes and joined her. The next two rooms were guest bedrooms. Harry looked in each briefly, then he and Hermione returned downstairs. They found Lupin on the back garden.

The back garden was as nice and neat as the front. There were hedges around the edge of the garden, all neatly cut, and led all the way down to the bottom of the garden. There was a large pond on the garden, with many water-lilies floating on the surface. Lupin was sat on a small blanket under a tree at the bottom of the garden. Beyond the garden, there was a small country lane and then miles and miles of green fields. Harry hadn't realised how long he had spent in his parents house, and found out that it was almost lunch. Lupin had brought a picnic and the three of them ate in silence looking around them at the beautifal landscape.

When they had all finished, Lupin took out a small bag.

"Harry," he said. "After your parents died, these were given to Sirius to take care of, after he died, i took them. We were told to give them to you on your seventeenth birthday, when you officially come of age. Unforunately, i was unable to give you them back then, for obvious reasons, so i thought now would be the right time to give them to you." He took a small, neatly packaged gift from the bag and passed it to Harry. Harry opened it carefully. "They are your parents wands and wedding rings, it is only right for you to have them." Harry took them out of the packaging. The two wedding rings were both gold, his fathers was plain on the outside, while his mothers had three sparkling diamonds placed on them. On the inside of each, there was a message:_ The love between us will never die. _Harry held the rings tightly in his hand, he didn't care that Lupin and Hermione were both watching him. He drew his legs up and hugged them tightly, he placed his head on his knee's and didn't wipe away the tears that were falling from his cheeks.

* * *

**A/N - Another chapter up... Thats about four since Friday, at the moment im finding it really easy to right this and i've had loads of time.**

**6 Reviews so far. It really helps me to know what you think and your suggestions. So thanks to all those who have reviewed! **

**So... You keep on reading and i'll keep writing!**

**If any of you Harry Potter experts have enough time, could you please help me with some information about Horcruxes... I've wrote all about it on my profile, so take a look and help please.**

**Again, keep on reading, the next chapter will be up in the next few days. **


	9. Chapter 9

That night, Harry, Hermione and Lupin returned to the Bluebottle (they had learnt the name of the pub on their way around the village). Harry had bought a chain and now held his mothers and fathers wedding ring around his neck. Their wands were placed carefully in his bag, they would stay there until he found somewhere to put them. Harry and Hermione ate their lunch in the main part of the pub, it was brightly lit, unlike the rooms upstairs and most of the villagers came at night. Harry found out that many people had known his parents and almost everyone in the pub (which actually wasn't a lot, but still an impressive amount) came to talk to him. He and Hermione stayed downstairs for a while, until Lupin finally called them upstairs.

"Harry," he said. "We were wondering how long you would like to stay here. We need to send a message to Mcgonagall to tell her when we will return and i don't want to arrange anything without asking you first."

"Tomorrow night," Harry replied. He had been thinking of this all night and had decided what he was going to do. "Tomorrow i'll go see my parents graves and then we can go. We need to return and sort out the -" He paused for a moment, not wanting to reveal what he knew about Horcruxes. "- We need to sort out Voldemort, and we're not going to do that while we're here. It has been great coming here, and seeing my parents home, but i can return one day after the war, if i survive that is."

* * *

The next morning, Harry woke early. He changed and quietly crept out of his room and into the lounge. No one was awake yet and Harry didn't feel like waiting around. He quickly scribbled a note and left it on the kitchen table. He took his invisibility cloak from his pocket and placed it carefully around him, not wanting to be seen by locals or anyone else. He crept down the staircase and into the centre of the village. It was deserted. It was still quite dark, the sun hadn't risen yet and there were many clouds in the sky. Harry wandered down towards the church. He pushed open the rustly old gate and into the churchyard. There were many graves around him, and Harry wasn't sure how to find his parents ones. He wandered down between the lines and lines of gravestones and, after about ten minutes, found his parents. They were hidden in the corner of the yard, the grass around the graves had been neatly trimmed and fresh flowers had been laid there. Harry knelt down between the headstones and placed one hand on each of them. He didn't know what to say or do. This was the first time he had visited a gravestone of anyone he knew, with Sirius, there hadn't been a body, so there was nowhere to go. When Dumbledore had died, Harry hadn't been able to face going to the white tomb on the Hogwarts grounds, even two months after the death of his mentor. Mr and Mrs Weasley had been buried, but even the Weasleys hadn't been able to visit their graves because of their security measures. 

Harrys fingers traced the letters on each of his parents graves, it was so strange how people had spoke of his parents for many years now and it hadn't bothered him, but when it came to looking at their graves, he couldn't stand it.

"Mum, Dad," he said. "I know you can't hear me, stupid really speaking, but, i need to say this to you, and i might not have another chance. Well, this is it, i've got to kill Voldemort, and i'm going to do it for you guys. You died to save me and i'm going to save the rest of the wizarding world, if i can. If i can't, well, i'll die trying at least. Maybe i'll see you again in the next year. At least, that way, dying wouldn't be that bad." He sat in silence for around ten minutes, then suddenly heard someone behind him.

"Harry, are you here?" said Hermione. "I know you've got your cloak on." Harry slid the cloak off and held it in his arms. He stood and joined Hermione. "You can stay longer if you want, i just wanted to check that you're alright."

"No, i'm fine," said Harry. "I've said all i wanted to say, and i'm ready to go." Hermione nodded and took Harrys hand, they both walked away, together and returned to the Bluebottle.

Lupin was sat in an armchair by the fire reading the Daily Prophet, he looked up as he saw Harry and Hermione enter. He said nothing, but nodded to Hermione. Harry entered the kitchen and made himself some breakfast, once he had finished, he joined Lupin and Hermione by the fire.

"Anything else happened?" Harry asked.

"No death eater activity at all, it's actually more disturbing than if there was any," said Lupin.

"Have you heard anything about Fred and George?" Hermione asked. "They can't stay at the shop, can they? They caught a death eater, Voldemort will be furious!"

"They want to keep the shop open, bring some laughter in during these dark times, as they say." Lupin replied. "I must say, it works as well. Everyone goes around Diagon Alley in their tight groups, not even stopping to say hello to an old friend. As soon as they step into the Weasley Wizard Wheezes they change. It has got to be the most relaxed shop down there. Most of the others have locked all their doors and won't let anyone in without proof of identify and the whole lot!"

"Remus, can i ask you something," Harry said, Lupin nodded. "If there are all these attacks, why have the ministry closed down Hogwarts? Surely it would be safer to train all these young wizards and witches instead of hiding them from everything."

"That is a good question, Harry," Lupin said. "The Ministry say that the large amount of students at Hogwarts would be a great target for the Death Eaters, which makes it a huge risk."

"Well, what if there was a small group of students, training privately?" Harry asked, curiously, it was a thought that had lingered in his mind for a while now.

"You mean like Dumbledore's Army?" Lupin replied, smiling. Harry nodded, then smiled. Lupin knew him too well. "I think it would be a great idea to re-open your little group. The only problem is getting people inside and out of the castle without being noticed, however, i am sure that Mcgonagall or Moody can arrange something."

"Thanks," said Harry. His mind was now filled with thoughts of the DA, would anyone actually want to return? He was sure that Neville and Luna would, but as for the others, who knew? It would take a large amount of planning and secrecy, so no others could find out.

"Now then, what shall we do for the rest of the day?" Lupin asked.

* * *

Eventually, they decided to go for a very long walk through the hills. They took with them a small picnic and set off down an old country lane. They didn't stop walking until lunch, when they stopped at the top of a hill to eat their lunch. It was a warm day, even though the sun couldn't be seen through the clouds and there was not a rain cloud in sight. Harry looked across into the distance as he ate his lunch, he guessed that they were somewhere on the Yorkshire Moors, but couldn't be sure. 

After they finished lunch, they continued walking for about an hour, when they decided to turn back. They reached the Bluebottle later than they had expected, and didn't have much time for talking.

"Well, Harry, Hermione, if you ever want to come again, you know i'm a friend and i will gladly let you stay here," Alfred said. He then turned to Lupin. "Remus, great seeing you again. I'll be seeing you soon, i guess, Minerva has asked me to come to the meeting in the new year." He winked at Lupin, then disappeared downstairs; the pub was rather busy tonight and he had a lot of people to serve.

As soon as the sun had set, Lupin led Harry and Hermione outside and to a large field not far from the pub. The thestrals were already there and the carriage was waiting. Hermione climbed in first, then Lupin, then Harry. Soon after, they were flying across the dark sky on their way back to Hogwarts, which was now not the only place that Harry classed as "home".

* * *

**A/N - Two chapters up in one night? These really can't be the best i can do them if i'm getting them up so quick, right? Oh.. I don't know.**

**Anyhoo... Enjoy and i'll be back with another chapter soon enough (Tomorrow at the earliest!) **

**Bye.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N - Thanks for all the reviews everyone!!! I'm so happy now! Lol. **

**I'm going to try and make the chapters longer, the last few were a little short because i was a bit difficult writing them, i wasn't quite sure what to put so i just wrote what came to my head (which wasn't a lot)**

**As before: Keep on reading and enjoy!**

* * *

When Harry returned to Hogwarts, in the early hours of the morning, he did not go to the dormitory. Instead, he stayed in the common room and he began to make a list of all those that had came to the DA in his fifth year and began to plan everything. He decided to only let those who had came to the DA meetings two years ago, so that there weren't too many people. Luna and Neville were at the top of his list, they had enjoyed the DA most and had helped Harry and the others against death eaters twice. Harry decided that, along with him, there would be Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna that would teach the others, because they were the ones, in his opinion, that knew the most about fighting. He was going to wait until the morning to ask Ron and Ginny their opinions, then he would send the letters out to find out who would be arriving for the meeting later that week. 

Harry was still busy working when Ron came down in the morning, he told Ron his ideas and Ron thought that it was a great idea, and, so, began to help Harry. Eventually, they decided that owls wouldn't be the safest way to deliver these letters, and called for Dobby.

"Harry Potter wants Dobby, sir?" Dobby asked, as he appeared on the table in front of them. Harry held out the letters in front of him, all of them neatly written using some help from his wand.

"Dobby, could you deliver these for me?" Harry asked. "I know there's a lot, but it's quite important. I want you to wait for a reply from everyone as well. I can get some help from the other house-elves if you want."

"Dobby will do whatever master asks him to do," said Dobby, smiling. "Dobby needs no help, Harry Potter, sir, Dobby has had much harder tasks than this with his other master, terrible tasks as well! Dobby will go now!" Dobby took the letters, there was a loud crack and he disappeared.

Harry had been so busy arranging the DA, that he had almost completely forgotten about what he and Hermione had saw in the dungeons. He told Ron what they had saw.

"What the bloody hell do they think they're doing bringing him in here?!" Ron bellowed. "He's a Death Eater! He almost killed Dumbledore! And Me! And Katie Bell!"

"Almost," said Harry, calmly. Ron looked at him, bewildered. "I was up there, Ron, and Malfoy started to lower his wand but then the death eaters arrived. He never wanted to kill Dumbledore, and he wasn't going to, before the death eaters arrived, he told Dumbledore that if he didn't, Voldemort would kill his family, and he didn't want that. He had no choice." Ron sat in silence for a few moments before speaking again.

"Are you actually standing up for Malfoy?" Ron asked, his voice was still quite loud.

"Yes," Harry replied. "Ron, lets face it, he's just like us now. His dads in Azkaban, his mum has gone missing and Voldemort is probably after him. This is the best place for him to be."

"His dad deserves to be in Azkaban, he was a Death Eater," Ron said.

"Yes, his dad does," said Harry. "But, in our first few years at Hogwarts, i think that Malfoy was only showing off about Voldemort and the death eaters, for attention. But when he was given a task by Voldemort, he couldn't do it, which shows that he has been on the wrong side all along."

Ron stared at Harry, with a confused expression on his face. He waved his hand in front of Harrys eyes.

"Is that really you, Harry?" he said.

* * *

When Hermione and Ginny joined the two boys in the common room, Harry told them about the DA and also everything he thought about Malfoy. They all agreed, even Ginny, that they were going to see Malfoy after breakfast and started to make their way down to the kitchens. The house-elves in the kitchens, what there was left of them, were extremely glad to have someone to help. Ron ordered a full english breakfast, with at least two of everything, while Hermione, who didn't want to overwork the elves, just asked for some cereal. Hermione, who was still working on S.P.E.W. actually took a few of the elves to the side to talk to them, however, they ignored her and carried on working. 

"You're wasting your time, Hermione," said Ron "They don't -" Before he could finish his sentence, he noticed his breakfast being carried across and didn't speak another word.

Eventually, the four friends finished their breakfast and left the kitchens with many cakes and other treats. They went down many corridors, until they eventually reached the dungeons and the corridor that led to the Slytherin Common Room.

"Parsletongue," said Harry. As they reached the stone wall. The wall opened and all four of them stepped inside. The common room was exactly the same as when Harry had been here in his second year. It had rough stone walls and there were many round, greenish lamps hanging from the ceiling. The sofas and most other items in the room were green, to match the Slytherin colours. They suddenly noticed a small figure on a sofa by the fire. He sat up quickly as he noticed the new arrivals.

"Potter!" Malfoy exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" He no longer looked tired, or a mess. His blonde hair was neat and tidy, and his robes were no longer ripped or dirty.

"Thought you might like a visitor, or four," said Harry. He threw one of the cakes that they had received from the kitchens and threw it to Malfoy. The four friends sat down on the comfy sofas and looked at Malfoy. "What happened to you, then? Me and Hermione saw you come in."

"It's none of your business, Potter," said Malfoy.

"Why aren't you with your pal, Voldemort?" Harry asked. Malfoy seemed to cower when he heard the name and said nothing. "I was there, that night on the astronomy tower, i saw you and Dumbledore. I saw you lower your wand."

"If you were there, why didn't you stop me?" Malfoy asked, obviously not believing the story.

"Dumbledore cast a bodybind spell on me, i was under my invisibility cloak and couldn't move," Harry said, still feeling slightly ashamed that he had watched his good friend and mentor die. "I saw you lower your wand before the Death Eaters arrived, you weren't going to do it."

"Get out!" Malfoy exclaimed, angered by the memories and the thought that Harry Potter had seen the weak side to him.

"Where did you go? With Snape?" Hermione asked.

"I said, Get out!" Malfoy shouted,

"You know that the Death Eaters killed my parents Malfoy," Ginny said. "You were on the wrong side, now you're on the right side."

"I'm not on anyones side," Malfoy muttered. "Now get out!" He yelled, pulling out his wand. Harry got the point, he stood and left the common room, his friends followed him.

"Before you even ask, i left because i'm going to wait until he's thought about until i say anything else," Harry said as they walked away, knowing his friends would ask him something about it

* * *

The four friends returned to the common room and found it empty. The rest of the Weasleys spent most of their time with Mcgonagall or Moody. Ron knw they were planning something, but didn't know what and wasn't allowed to join them. 

"How far did you get in the library?" Hermione asked, not wanting to give too much away in front of Ginny.

"I've got a list of items," Ron said. "But the problem is tracking them down. It's easy to locate them, but the ones we're looking for are somewhere else, and nowhere else."

"It doesn't matter if you can't find where they are, as long as we know what they are," Harry said. "He would have hid them in places that were, well, important to him, like the cave. As long as we know what it is, it should be easy to look for."

"Why can't i help with this?" Ginny asked, slightly irritated by the fact that she wasn't able to join in with this conversation. "And don't you dare say i'm too young Ron!"

"I told Dumbledore that i wouldn't tell anyone, and i'm not going to," said Harry. "Sorry Ginny,"

"Fine, well, if you're all busy with this, i guess i'll go somewhere else," Ginny said. She stood and stormed out of the common room.

"Anyway, Harry, you said that the horcruxes will be somewhere important to him, right?" Hermione said. "Well, i need you to think about all the places you saw in the penseive last year."

"Well, there was the cave, The Gaunt House, but those have already been found," Harry said. "There was the riddle house, but he wouldn't put two so close together, would he?"

"We'll have to check," Hermione said, quickly scribbling down what Harry was saying.

"Then there was the orphanage," Harry said, trying to remember everything from his lesson with Voldemort. "He came to Hogwarts twice as well, you don't think there could be one here, could there?"

"It would be too risky," Hermione said.

"Not if he hid it somewhere only he knew about," Ron said, thoughtfully. "Like the Chamber of Secrets."

"We wouldn't have done!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Ron has a point, there aren't many people who can speak parsletongue, is there?" Harry said. "And he came back to Hogwarts that second time, even though he knew that there was no chance of getting a job, maybe that was just an excuse to get into school and into the chamber." Hermione shook her head.

"I don't know, it doesn't seem right," she said.

"It's a possibility, right it down!" Ron said, Hermione began writing. "Right, where else, Harry?"

"I can't remember," Harry said. "I'll have to look at the memories Aberforth gave me, i should be able to find something out." He turned to leave, but suddenly there was a loud crack, Dobby had returned.

"Dobby!" Harry exclaimed. "Did you deliver them all?"

"Yes, Harry Potter, Sir," Dobby said.

"Who can come?" Harry asked. Dobby took a piece of parchment and began to read from it.

"The people that are going to come are Miss Luna Lovegood, who says she would love to help teach, Mr Neville Longbottom, who says the same." Dobby said. "There is also; Colin and Dennis Creevey, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Cho Chang, Lavender Brown, Angelina Johnson, Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, Susan Bones, Katie Bell, Hannah Abbott, Terry Boot, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Lee Jordan, Ernie Macmillan and Alicia Spinner."

"Wow, that's almost everyone!" Ron exclaimed. "What about Fred and George?"

"They said no thankyou, they are now in the Order of the Phoenix and do not have enough time for both," Dobby said.

"Thanks, Dobby," Harry said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a galleon. "Here, have this, buy yourself some nice socks," He threw the galleon to Dobby, who wasn't sure what to do.

"Dobby cannot accept this, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby said. "It is too much!"

"No, it isn't Dobby," Harry said. "You don't have to spend it yet, do what you want."

"Thankyou, master," Dobby said, bowing. There was a loud crack and he vanished.

"So, Harry, when is this DA meeting?" Hermione asked.

"On Friday," Harry replied. "The day after tomorrow," suddenly realising that they had a lot of work to do before then.


	11. Chapter 11

That afternoon and the following day, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny spent lots of time in the library. They took many books about the Dark Arts and books containing some very good defensive spells. When they weren't in the library, they spent their time practising and sorting out everything else. Hermione managed to get permission from Mcgonagall to use the Great Hall, which would be a lot better than the Room of Requirement. 

On Friday morning, Harry completed everything, and at eleven o'clock he stood in the entrance hall, waiting for everyone else to arrive. Hermione, Ginny and Ron were waiting in the hall.

First to arrive, was Neville Longbottom. He was a round faced forgetful boy, but had also fought the Death Eaters twice, and, despite what others had said about him, was actually quite good. Harry sent him into the hall and waited; next came Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown, and Padma and Parvati Patil, all looking extremely happy. Harry greeted them, then, like Neville, asked them to wait in the Hall. Eventually, the rest of the members arrived, the last two people to arrive were Angelina Johnson and Lee Jordan, both walked up the road to Hogwarts hand-in-hand. It appeared that after many refusals, Angelina had eventually said yes to Lee Jordan. They apologized for being late, then Harry followed them into the hall. Everyone was talking; hardly anyone had seen their friends since the end of last year and apparentley had a lot of catching up to do. Harry ignored this for the moment, and joined Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna, who were stood in front of the large crowd. Neville was talking excitedly with Ron, Ginny and Hermione, while Luna was busy staring off into space.

After half an hour, when Harry had spoken to almost everyone and managed to tell the story of capturing Bellatrix Lestrange over ten times, he decided to start the meeting. Everyone sat down on the chairs provided and were silent. Harry, Ron and Hermione sat at the front, while Ginny, Luna and Neville stood at the back of the group.

"Well, er, Welcome back!" He said, growing nervous under the many eyes that were focused on him. "I know we set up Dumbledore's army to go against Umbridge and learn the things she refused to teach, however, now it is all about defense. It was a mistake not starting the DA again last year, as we all know from the events at the end of then, but that is why we are here." He paused for a moment. "The ministry have said that Hogwarts cannot be reopened because it is a risk to all its students, but we think it's even more of a risk to have all these untrained young wizards and witches out there when Voldemort -" a few people flinched "- and all his Death Eaters are out there, attacking. So, here we are." He paused again as everyone watched him hopefully. "This time, it won't just be me teaching you. Instead, it will be the six people who have actually faced the Death Eaters. All of us have faced the Death Eaters at least twice and I thought it would be best for those people to teach you to defend yourselves. That is, in case you don't know, me, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny and Luna. Before we start, I think we should sort out when our meetings are going to be, Hogwarts is the best place to have them, but what about the day and time?"

"What about the Friday evening?" Lee Jordan shouted, many people agreed with him.

"That's good for me," Cho Chang said.

"And me!" Ernie Macmillan shouted.

"What if we had it Friday night and Saturday morning?" Hermione said. "We all need a lot of training, and we might be able to persuade Mcgonagall to let you stay in the castle Friday night, there is enough room. And, that way, if you can't make it for Friday evening, you could just turn up on Saturday, or if you can't come on saturday, just come Friday night." There was a lot of excited talk between everyone, all seemed happy about Hermione's idea.

"Is that agreed?" Harry asked, everyone shouted yes. "So i'll see you every Friday from 6 o'clock onwards." He paused for a moment. "Now, lets get on with the training!" Everyone stood and crossed the hall, away from the chairs and stood looking at Harry.

"Ok then, the first spell we will be learning is the Oppugno spell," Harry said. "I know that this is a quite simple spell, but it can also be very helpful in battle and give you valuable time while your attacker is being attacked. There are some cushions over there -" he pointed to the corner of the room "- spread out and work in pairs." Everyone listened to him, there was some mumbling about how easy this task was, however, Harry was planning to save the better tasks until the end.

Within five minutes, the group had all spread out and were working peacefully together, Harry did not join in for the moment, there was an odd amount of people and last year, it had been Neville working on his own. Harry suddenly had a quick thought, he ran over to Hermione (who was busy sending cushions so hard at Ron that they knocked him off his feet).

"Hermione, i'll be back in a minute," he whispered. "Keep on practising for a bit, and if i'm not back in ten minutes, start the next spell." Hermione nodded, and Harry turned and left the room. He immediately ran to the corridor off of the entrance hall that led to the dungeons. He ran down the dark, dingy corridors and eventually reached the door to the Slytherin Common Room. He muttered the password and entered, Moody was sat alone talking to Malfoy.

"Potter, what are you doing here?" Moody growled, a hint of surprise in his voice. He wasn't facing Harry, but Harry knew that his magic eye would be looking through the back of his head.

"I just wanted to ask Malfoy something," Harry said.

"Well, I think we're done Draco," Moody said, standing up. He nodded to Harry as he left the room.

"What do you want, Potter?" Malfoy asked, sneering. "I told you to leave, I don't want to talk to you, or any of your friends."

"I don't want to talk about anything that happened that night, or what you were doing between then or now, or even the way you behaed before then," Harry said. "I just wanted to ask if you wanted to come to the DA meeting we're having upstairs."

"Why would I want to do that?" Malfoy asked.

"I'm asking you because you we all need to defend ourselves," Harry said. "And you're not really going to learn by sitting down here today."

"Who's there?" Malfoy asked, sounding slightly intruiged. Harry told him everyone who had came to the meeting.

"Well, are you coming or am i just wasting my time?" Harry asked. Malfoy sat in silence for a few moments before answering.

"Why not?" He said. "Any chance to curse those idiots." Harry, however, guessed that was not Malfoys actual reason for going, but chose not to say anything. Malfoy grabbed his wand from the coffee table in front of him and followed Harry out of the common room. They walked in silence up to the entrance hall, then Malfoy suddenly stopped and grabbed Harrys arm.

"How do i know that they're not all going to curse me when i walk in?" Malfoy said. "They saw me at the end of last year, with, well, you know who, and how do i know they aren't going to attack me?" He sounded slightly worried.

"Because, Malfoy," Harry said. "Why would we do that when Mcgonagall and Moody are trying to keep you safe? We are all the same, especially me, you and Ron. You know why." Malfoy nodded. Harry pushed open the doors to the Great Hall and saw that the group were now practising the next spell. Everyone turned around as they saw Harry enter, and all were shocked to see Malfoy behind him. Malfoy walked slowly behind Harry, avoiding the eyes of the rest of them. This made a change from his usual walk, normally he would strut around school as if he were better than all of them.

_He's changed _Thought Harry.

"What's he doing here?" Neville asked, very loudly.

"Yeah, Potter, what do you think your doing bringing that Slytherin here," Justin Finch-Fletchley shouted.

"Not just any Slytherin, Malfoy, he's as bad as a Death Eater!" Terry Boot exclaimed.

"He is a death eater!" Ernie Macmillan yelled. "He let the others into school last year, and he ran with Snape after Dumbledore died!" There was a lot of angry talk between the various members of the group, all of their wands (except Hermione's, Ginnys and Rons) were all pointed at Malfoy.

Malfoy turned to leave, but Harry grabbed the sleeve of his robe. "Wait," Harry muttered.

"Malfoy is here because i asked him to join us," Harry said. "Malfoy is in as much danger as all of us, in fact, he's in more danger. He isn't with Voldemort, he's with us now."

"How do we know he isn't spying on us?" Dean Thomas shouted. "How do we know that he isn't giving information to you-know-who?"

"We know, because he has been locked up in here for almost a week now," Harry said. "He has no contact with the outside world, none of us do!"

"You managed to get in touch with us using your house-elve, how do we know he isn't doing the same?" Lee Jordan shouted.

"Alright, just shut it," Harry yelled, now getting annoyed with all these questions. "I asked Malfoy here, it is my group. We are all here to defend ourselves, and Malfoy wants to come, if any of you have a problem with that, leave, now." A few people shuffled uncomfortably, but no one left. "Thankyou, now, onto the next spell," He walked forwards, further into the hall, Malfoy followed, his eyes darting between all the members of the group who were staring at him. "The next spell is from a book i received last year," he paused for a moment and looked to Hermione, who wasn't pleased. "The book used to belong to a certain Half-Blood Prince, who is now, in fact, a Death Eater. This spell is very useful for delaying your enemies. Seamus, Dean, you might remember this one, the spell is Levicorpus. Ron, would you like to demonstrate?" Ron stepped forward and pointed his wand at Harry.

"Levicorpus!" He shouted, Harry felt himself being swept off his feet, a few moments later, he was hanging upside down in the air, many people laughing at him. His glasses slipped of his nose and landed on the floor. "The counter-spell," Harry said. "Is Liberacorpus," he quickly fell to ground. He picked up his glasses and repared them, then looked around him. "Well, get practising!" Everyone quickly paired up, Harry joined Malfoy, feeling slightly sorry for him. He paused for a moment, he actually felt sorry for Malfoy, his enemy, together with Snape and Voldemort, Malfoy had made Harry feel extremely bad over his six years at Hogwarts. He soon moved again and joined Malfoy on the far end of the room.

"Thanks, Potter." Malfoy muttered, loud enough for Harry to hear him, but not too loud so that others heard him.

"Not a problem," Harry said.

"This doesn't mean we're friends, Potter," said Malfoy, smirking slightly. The two of them quickly began practising the spell as Parvati and Padma Patil began practicing near them.

Half an hour later, they rested. Many people had managed injure themselves, some people had decided to send random people flying up into the air, and it appeared that when two or more people cast this spell on one person, the effects were quite different. Seamus Finnigan and Hannah Abbott had both suffered the effect of this, and were sent flying into the air and began to spin in mid-air, and, though the sight of this was quite funny to those watching, it wasn't to those who the spell had been sent at. It was Hermione who had cast the counter spell, Hannah and Seamus had then been asked to sit at the side until their dizziness disappeared. There were also injuries from people who had been sent crashing down and had landed awkwardly. Dennis Creevey had done this and managed to break his arm, he was then sent, with his brother, to find Mcgonagall, Moody or any other Order of the Phoenix member to fix this.

During the short break, many house elves came up from the kitchen with cakes, drinks and lots of other food. The whole of the group sat talking together in one large group, Malfoy, however, sat a little further away from the group, behind Harry. They talked mostly of the news that had been in the Daily Prophet over the last few weeks, but also about other things. Eventually, they began talking about the invitation they had recieved from Harry the day before.

"Gran didn't mind about me coming," Neville said. "She says it's a great idea."

"Our mums not so convinced," said Parvati. "Remember, she took us out of school last year after Dumbledore died?"

"She's convinced that nowhere's safe, and, who can blame her? Look at what happened here last year," said Padma. "We told her that if nowhere is really safe, surely it would be better to train here than sit at home doing nothing all day."

"It took a lot of time to persuade her to let us come," said Parvati. "But if she had still said no, we would have came anyway."

"My dad told me i should come," said Hannah Abbott. "After what happened here last year, and everything else that's going on, it's good to have this to come to."

"Yeah, it is," Susan Bones said. "It's something fun to do, but it's also practical. And it distracts us from everything that's happening out there."

"Well, i think we should get back to work now," said Hermione, looking at her watch. "It's already one o'clock and the meeting finishes at four."

"Lets get started then!" Harry exclaimed. "Now, we won't be learning any more new spells for today, however, we will be having short duels with each other. The school started a duelling club in my second year, unfortuanately that didn't work, but we are going to start it again, in a way. There will be three duels at a time, those you aren't duelling have three choices; the first is to watch and maybe learn some new things, the second is to practise spells you already know, somewhere away from the duelling stages, and the third is to learn new spells from the books we have managed to, er, borrow from the library. We will make it into a competition, everytime you win a duel, you will recieve one point, then, after you have all duelled three times, we will start the finals. The overall winner will recieve a prize, then we will start everything again. It sounds a little childish, i know, but it will give you some experience at fighting, you will know how fast you have to think when you are duelling, however, this will be more fun than a proper duel."

"Now it is time for some rules," said Hermione. "The first is quite obvious, no unforgivables, at all. Also, when someone is duelling, do not try to distract them or attack them from the side, or points will be deducted. Also, you are only trying to disarm, or possibly knock out your opponent, so do not do more than what is needed. You cannot start duelling until one of us leaders, that is to say me, Harry, Ron, Neville, Ginny or Luna, say you can and fire the signal. If we say stop, stop immediately. Thankyou,"

"Lets go!" Harry shouted. Hermione waved her wand and muttered a spell that none could hear and three duelling stages appeared in the room. "Right, we'll have one duel first, so we can all watch. I think we will have," he paused as he looked across the crowd. "Dean against Neville." Everyone moved around quickly. Dean and Neville climbed onto the duelling stage, Ginny followed and stood in the centre. She pointed her wand into the air, many green sparks flew up into the air. She then jumped down from the stage as Dean and Neville bowed at each other. Both stood straight, their wands pointed at each other.

"Expelliarmus!" Dean shouted, Neville, however, was too quick.

"Protego!" Neville shouted, "Rictusempra!" Dean bent over suddenly and let out a scream of laughter, Neville had cast the Tickling Charm. Dean soon managed to remove the spell and stood to face Neville.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Dean shouted, but once again, Neville blocked it.

"Incarcerous!" Neville shouted, the spell hit Dean and soon he was binded by many ropes, he hopped around for a while, then fell to the floor."

"The winner is Neville!" Ginny shouted. Neville seemed very shocked. He stared at Dean on the floor for a moment, then smiled, only just realising what Ginny had said.

"Well done!" Harry shouted. Ginny climbed up onto the stage and removed the ropes from Dean. Dean stood and climbed down from the stage, not looking very happy. "Next, we will have, Lavender and Parvati, Alicia and Malfoy, and Cho and Terry." The three pairs stood onto each of the stages. Ron stood by Cho and Terrys stage, Ginny stood by Lavender and Parvati's and Luna stood by Alicia and Malfoys. Hermione crossed the room to talk to those who had decided to learn from the books, and Harry sat by Neville, away from everyone else.

"Wow, i won!" Neville exclaimed.

"Of course you did," Harry said. "You fought the Death Eaters two years in a row, and that was only Dean Thomas, Neville." Neville smiled and muttered something Harry couldn't hear, before turning and crossing the room to watch the others fighting.

By the end of the meeting, everyone had duelled at least once and, luckily, there had been no injuries. The afternoon passed so quickly, that they didn't realised they had passed four o'clock a long time ago. They all agreed to see each other the following Friday night for a meeting, and if there were any problems, a house elf would be sent to tell them. Malfoy returned to the Slythering Common Room, while Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny stood in the Entrance Hall, as they watched the crowd of people walk slowly down the path towards the Hogwarts gates, where Hagrid would be waiting to let them out. The four friends watched until their friends disappeared into the distance, then closed the large doors and began walking up to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"So, what are we going to do until the next meeting?" Ron asked.

"I was thinking, we could go on a little trip," Harry said. "I think we should start the search soon. If we could at least find where they are, then come back, and we could find out how to destroy them. Then go back later. What do you think?"

"I think you should tell me what you're up to," Ginny said.

"Shut up, Ginny," Ron said, pushing Ginny into a suit of armour in the corridor. "I think it's a brilliant idea,"

"Me too," said Hermione. "Where are we going first?"

"The Riddle House."

* * *

**A-N - That's right, i guessed they should go looking soon, so the next chapter should be up by the weekend, depending on what goes off in the "real world"and how easy i find it to write it.**

**I've been asked to make the chapters longer, so i tried. ****Tell me what you think.**

**Thanks for all the reviews so far.**

**Keep on reading (And reviewing if possible)**


	12. Chapter 12

Harry, Ron and Hermione went straight to Mcgonagall's office, Ginny left them, complaining, once again, about being left out. They ran up the many staircases until they reached the stone gargoyle that led to the headmistresses office. Hermione knew that Mcgonagall and the other more important Order members were spending a lot of time in this office, however, no one else knew what they were doing.

Hemione said the password and the gargoyle sprang open. The three friends stepped onto the moving spiral staircase, and waited until they reached the top. Voices could be heard from inside the office, there was another meeting. Soon the voices stopped, obviously Moody had saw the three friends with his magical eyes. Hermione opened the door and stepped in, Harry and Ron followed.

"Hi, sorry to disturb your meeting," Hermione said. Harry, however, did not notice the people sat in the room, his eyes were focused on a new painting on the wall. Dumbledore. He was sleeping peacefully, like the many portraits around him. Harry had seen this painting last year, but that was so soon after Dumbledore's death, that he hadn't paid much attention to it. Dumbledore's long beard was so long that it had dissappeared behind the bottom of the frame. His half-moon glasses were perched comfortably upon his long crooked nose. Harry could not believe that this was, in a way, the same person that Snape had murdered a few months ago. His eyes slowly moved away from the picture, and to what was happening in front of him. Professor Mcgonagall was sat behind her desk, which was completely covered by large pieces of parchment. Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Aberforth Dumbledore and Bill Weasley.

"How did the meeting go?" Mcgonagall asked, moving all the papers away from the eyes of her new visitors.

"It was fine," Hermione replied. "Actually, that's one of the reasons why we are here. We can't have any meetings in the week, everyone else has plans, so we wanted to know if it would be possible for the members to come here on a Friday night, to stay overnight, so we can have a meeting on Friday night and Saturday morning. Would that be alright?" Mcgonagall sat in silence for a few moments, obviously thinking about the idea.

"I think that would be fine," she replied. "The members will be allowed to stay in the hufflepuff dormitories."

"Thankyou, professor," Harry said.

"Now, what is the second reason?" Mcgonagall asked.

"We're leaving, for a while, tomorrow," Hermione said. "We need to start that task, and we aren't going to do it if we're sat in here all the time."

"Where will you be going?" Moody growled.

"To the Riddle House," Harry said. "Where Voldemorts grandparents and father used to live, we think that what we are looking for might be there." He looked across at Aberforth, who seemed to have a familiar twinkle in his eyes, that Harry had saw many times in Dumbledore's eyes. He nodded to Harry, and Harry turned away.

"This is the place where Voldemort was in your fourth year?" Mcgonagall asked. Harry nodded, remembering the triwizard cup, taking him to the graveyard. The graveyard was an image that had haunted Harrys dreams for many years now, seeing the Death Eaters gathered around their master, seeing the jet of green light hitting Cedric, seeing Voldemort coming to life.

"Although i am not pleased with the idea of these three going alone, i think we should let them," Moody growled. "They alone know how to stop Voldemort, and they might as well start it." He paused for a moment. "However, i think we should send some Order members there tonight, to see if it is still unused. You will then be able to leave in the morning, if our inspection goes well."

"Thanks!" Hermione exclaimed. The three of them left the room and returned to the Gryffindor dormitories.

Ginny was sat alone by the fireplace, reading the newest copy of _Witch Weekly. _When she saw that the others had entered, she threw the copy down onto the floor and stood with her hands on her hips.

"Why won't you tell me what you're up to?" She asked.

"Because, last year, i told Dumbledore that i would only tell these two," Harry said.

"So you agreed to tell your two best friends but not me?" Ginny asked. "You chose to tell your two best friends, but not your girlfriend?"

"Yes." Harry said.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because, i knew, somehow, that i would have to end it with you, i didn't want to but i had to." Harry replied. "I didn't want you to get involved in any of it." Ginny stood still, she dropped her hands, then stormed past her three friends, hitting Harry hard on the shoulder as she passed, then left the Common Room.

"Hermione, i'm sorry, i thought you were always the mental one," Ron said, holding back a laugh.

"Shut up, Ron," Hermione said. "Harry, you should talk to her, not about the Horcruxes, but just talk to her."

"I'm going to sort out my things," Harry said, ignoring what Hermione had just said. He walked slowly across the common room and up the stairs to his dormitory. When he reached the dormitory that he and Ron shared, he sat on his bed and drew the curtains around him. He hated not being able to tell Ginny, and couldn't forget what had happened at Dumbledore's funeral. He hadn't want to end it, but he had to, for her safety. He sat in silence on his bed for a few minutes, many thoughts were runnning through his mind. He then took out the marauders map from his trunk and looked carefully around the many different rooms for Ginny. Eventually, he found her, alone in a classroom on the third floor. He took his invisibility cloak from his bag and left the dormitory, narrowly avoiding Ron on the staircase. He ran through the Common Room, unheard by Hermione and left. He walked slowly down to the third floor, checking the map occasionally to see if she had moved, but she didn't. He stood outside the door for a few moments, hesitating, but then opened the door carefully. Ginny turned to the door as she heard it creak open, she couldn't see anyone, but knew that it was Harry that would be there in his cloak.

"What do you want?" She asked.

"To talk to you," Harry replied. He kept the cloak on and sat next to her. She felt him next to her, and shuffled a little across the desk she was sat on. "I am sorry about everything, especially about not telling you, but i will do, now." Ginny turned quickly and stared at the blank space, where Harry was sat next to her.

"You will?" She asked, taken aback.

"Yes," Harry said.

"Take the cloak off first," Ginny said. "It's annoying talking to nothing." Harry slid the cloak off and laid it on the desk next to him. "Now tell me."

"Last year, you know i had those lessons with Dumbledore, don't you?" She nodded. "Well, i learnt things about Voldemort, and, i found something very important. He made Horcruxes."

"What are Horcruxes?" Ginny asked.

"He split his soul, and conealed the pieces in different objects outside of his body," Harry said. "If someone did do this, they would normally create one, because to split your soul, you need to murder someone. But Voldemort has seven. Three of them have been destroyed, and one is in his body, but that leaves four others. That is what i am going to do this year, when the ones outside his body are destroyed, he can be killed."

"So that's why he didn't die when he attacked you when you were a baby?" Ginny asked, she seemed to understand this a lot more than Ron did.

"Yes," Harry replied.

"Which ones have been destroyed?" She asked.

"One of them, you know, it was in your possession," Harry said. "Tom Riddle's Diary. I destroyed that one. Dumbledore destroyed another, a ring. The third was destroyed by Aberforth Dumbledore."

"That diary contained his soul?" Ginny asked, staring into Harrys eyes.

"Yes," he replied. "Now, i have to destroy the others, then kill him." Ginny nodded. "I'm sorry for not telling you, it was my promise to Dumbledore."

"That's fine," Ginny said. "You ready to go back?" The two of them stood and left the classroom, then began the slow walk back to the Gryffindor tower.

"Don't tell the others i told you," Harry said quickly. Ginny smiled.

"I wasn't going to," she replied.

* * *

Harry was woke early the following morning by Hermione. 

"Harry, wake up!" She said. "We are leaving soon, the Order came back, the Riddle House seems safe so we're alright to go." Harry dragged himself out of bed, waited for Hermione to leave, then got changed. He noticed that Ron wasn't in his bed, obviously Hermone had already woke him. Hermione came back once he had changed.

"How long are we going for?" Harry asked.

"One night," she replied. "I've booked us into a campsite nearby, it's a short walk to the house from there. You won't need much, but take some warm clothes, it will be cold." Harry nodded and began to sort out the things he needed and placed them in a smaller bag. Hermione left him, and returned a short while later with some toast.

"Why to we have to be ready so quick?" Harry asked.

"We're catching the train, and we might miss it!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Why can't we apparate, i know what it looks like," Harry said.

"Me and Ron don't, and we'll end up getting splinched!" Hermione said. She turned and left the room quickly. Harry finished packing his belongings, placing his invisibility cloak on top of everything else, just in case. He found Hermione and Ron in the common room, Ron was slowly falling asleep on an armchair, while Hermione was rummaging through her belongings checking that she hadn't forgot anything. Ginny was sat by the window, reading today's copy of the _Daily Prophet. _She smiled at Harry, and he crossed the room to talk to her.

"Have fun," she said, carefully slipping a piece of parchment into Harrys hand. "That's for if you get bored on the way there,"

"Thanks," said Harry, placing the parchment into his pocket. "Just make sure you don't get too friendly with Malfoy while we're gone."

"With that slug? I doubt it," she laughed. Harry turned and left her, to join Hermione and Ron, who were waiting by the portrait hole. The three friends left and made their way down to the entrance hall. Harry couldn't wipe the smile off of his face, he was finally talking to Ginny again, like they had done in the years before. They were friends, and that was all, but there was still something inside Harry that thought they should be more. He shook those thoughts from his mind and caught up with Ron and Hermione, who were now some way in front of him.

They were met in the Entrance Hall by Tonks who's hair was short and bright pink. She had a big smile on her face, not unlike Harrys.

"Wotcher, Harry!" She said, noticing the three friends. "You all alright?"

"Not bad, you?" Harry replied.

"I'm good," Tonks replied. "Let's go then." They left the castle and began the slow walk down to the castle gates, then stopped when the left the grounds and reached Hogsmeade.

"Ok then, you'll be apparating to Platform nine and three quarters, it's the only safe place there, then you can catch the train," Tonks said. "You can all picture the platform in your heads can't you? Good. I'll be waiting on the other side." She screwed up her face and disappeared silently. Hermione was next to leave. Harry quickly pictured the platform and a few seconds later, he was there. It was his second successful apparition. He looked around him, the red steam train, the Hogwarts Express was stood on the tracks, though it did not look normal without the crowds of students and parents around it, that was the only way that Harry remembered it. Ron arrived soon after, his face was bright red.

"I made a bit of a mistake," He said. "I landed somewhere i've never seen before, there was only one person there but somehow i managed to knock them over. I apparated straight out of there, hopefully they thought it was just their imagination." Harry laughed loudly, Rons ears and face turned an even brighter red.

"I'll go through the barrier first," Tonks said. She stepped through what appeared to be a plain wall and disappeared. Harry went next, stepping from the quiet platform nine and three quarters and appearing at Kings Cross Station, many muggle businessmen and women were pushing past him, dressed in their work clothes and on the mobile phones and carrying briefcases. Ron was next through the barrier, then Hermione.

"You know what train you've got to catch?" Tonks shouted, there were many people around her talking loudly and she could hardly be heard. "I've got to get to the ministry, bye!" She ran through the crowd and soon vanished from sight. Hermione grabbed Harry and Ron by the shoulder and dragged away. They soon stopped as they reached platform two. They managed to catch the train just in time and were soon on their way out of the station. They managed to find an empty compartment and entered it. The train was very different from the Hogwarts express and they were soon joined by two muggle men and a muggle woman on their way to work.

"Wake me up when we get there," said Ron. He pulled a blanket from his bag and wrapped it around himself, then soon fell asleep. Hermione took a muggle magazine from her bag and began reading it. Harry sat in silence for a while, watching the three muggles. One of them was busy on their laptop, another was doing paperwork and the third was one their phone. Harry slowly took his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the copy of _The Quibbler _in his bag that Luna had given to him at the DA meeting. The outside page of the magazine transformed into the cover from a muggle magazine and Harry took it from his bag.

After about half an hour. Harry had finished the magazine, he placed it back into his bag. Two of the muggles had left, and there was now only one muggle man left. He had put his laptop into it's case and was now sat reading a copy of _The Daily Mail_. Harry turned and looked out of the window, watching the houses, fields, trees, motorways and buildings pass him by. Soon, he remembered the piece of parchment that Ginny had given him. He took the disguised copy of T_he Quibbler _from his bag, then carefully slid the piece of parchment into it. It appeared to be a plain piece of parchment, Harry was unsure why Ginny had given it to him. He stared at it for a few moments, then words appeared on it.

_Harry. Are you reading this? It's Ginny._

He stared at the words on the paper for a few moments, then realised that Ginny must have charmed it. He had some ink and a quill in his bag, however, the muggle was still in the compartment, so he decided not to use it.

"Excuse me, have you got a pen i could borrow?" He asked the muggle. He waved the disguised magazine at the man. "Wordsearch, love doing them." The man reached into his briefcase and pulled out a pen. He handed it over to Harry. "Thanks, i'll give it you back when we leave." He pointed the pen to the paper and began to write.

_Ginny, I am reading this. Harry_

Not long after, a reply appeared.

_Fleur gave me the idea for this, she has a few to keep in touch with her friends in France. It's a lot quicker and safer that owls. It's clever, isn't it?_

Harry thought of a reply, then wrote.

_Very clever, it's a great idea. Sorry you couldn't come with us, but i don't want them to know that you know yet. Hermione will probably want me to tell Mcgonagall if she knew that you knew._

_That's fine. At least, if you've got this, you can tell me what's happening and if you need any information, i can get it from the library. So, how is the train ride so far?_

_Not bad. Ron's asleep, Hermione's reading, for a change. There have been a couple of muggles in our compartment so we have to be careful. There's still one in here, i've had to borrow his pen._

_Great. Listen, i've got to go now, Charlie's coming out of hospital today, so me, Bill and Fleur are going to meet him. Tell me if anything interesting happens, from Ginny._

Harry put the piece of parchment back into his pocket and the magazine into his bag. He passed the pen back to the muggle man, thanking him again, then turned away. Hermione was sat staring at the wall in front of her, the book was now closed on her lap. Ron was asleep and snoring quietly. The muggle man left at the next stop, and Hermione soon began packing her things away.

"We get off at the next stop," she said. She turned to Ron and started to shake him awake, eventually he woke up and looked around, slightly confused.

"What time is it?" He asked.

"Almost lunch," Hermione replied, looking at her watch.

"Great," said Ron, jumping up. "How far is it?"

"Not far, the next stop then it's a bit of a walk," Hermione replied.

It didn't take them long to pack everything away, and soon they were sat waiting for the train to stop. They felt the train slowing down and watched the station slowly rolling towards them. The train stopped and the three friends climbed off. The station was empty. They were the only ones that had got off the train, and there didn't appear to be anyone getting on the train. They found their way to a small cafe, where they ate their lunch. After they had finished, they found out some information about the campsite they would be staying on and began the short walk there.

The town of Little Hangleton was very peaceful, like the village where Harrys parents had lived. They passed a small pub, called the Hanged Man, where many people were peering out of the dusty windows at the new arrivals. A little further up the road, Harry found himself in a very familiar place. He soon realised where he was, it was the very place he had visited in Dumbledore's pensieve, the road where The Gaunt House was. Harry soon found the small path that led to the Gaunts run-down old house, there were many weeds covering the path and the garden was very overgrown. Harry felt Hermione and Ron behind him.

"That's where his mother, uncle and grandfather lived," Harry said, pointing out the small house that could hardly be seen. They continued walking for a while, until they reached the campsite. Hermione dealt with the money, and soon they were on their way around the camp trying to find their pitch. Eventually, they found pitch A21, where they would be staying. Their tent had already been set up on the pitch and everything was ready. Harry stepped inside the tent, it was a lot like the tent he had stayed in during the quidditch world cup, apart from the fact that the smell of cats wasn't present in this one. There was the main living room and kitchen, and three bedrooms joined to the main one.

"We couldn't get one in the bathroom," Hermione said. "Luckily, there is a bathroom on the site that we're allowed to use, but be careful, remember that it's all muggles, as far as i know, that are staying here." They unpacked their belongings, then sat together by the kitchen table, deciding what to do next.

"I don't think we should go to the Riddle house, not yet," Harry said. "Wait until it's a little darker, or we might end up with the police or angry locals after us."

"What shall we do before then?" Ron asked.

"Wait," Harry said. "I don't really want to go out of the campsite yet, i know the Order members reported that everything was safe, but you don't know if they missed anything."

"There isn't much to do," Hermione said, reading one of the booklets they had received when they arrived. "We could just go for a walk around the site."

"I'm up for it," Ron said. "What about you, Harry?"

"Yeah, sure," Harry replied. The three of them left the tent, locking it using magic behind them, and wandered around the campsite. It was also a very peaceful place. There weren't many people staying at the moment, but those who were looked as if they were staying for a while. There was a large fishing pond on the campsite, and there were a few people fishing. Ron stared at these, people.

"What's the fun in that?" He said, completely amazed by the simple sport. "It's just ridiculous!"

"It's a sport to muggles," Hermione said. "Like quidditch to you."

"How can you compare quidditch to that?" Ron said, completely bewildered. "Quidditch is exciting, you don't just sit staring at the water for hours."

"There's a lot more skill in it than that," Hermione said, obviously annoyed by Ron's lack of muggle knowledge. "My Uncle used to go a lot, he found it fun."

"Yeah, well, Muggles are just nutters," Ron muttered so quietly that only Harry could hear him. The three of them sat on the grassy bank and watched the muggles fishing. One of them caught a fish, but only a small one, Harry could hear Ron next to him muttering "Ridiculous" or "Completely pointless" every few minutes. A short while later, the three friends left again and continued wandering around the site. They stopped again as they reached a small pub, they all decided to go in for a while to warm up and entered. Inside, it was very bright, and also completely empty. Harry and Ron took a seat, while Hermione went to buy the drinks. She came back with three tall glasses of orange juice.

"No butterbeer?" Ron asked.

"Don't be stupid, Ron, it's a muggle pub," Harry replied. He gladly accepted the drink and drank it slowly.

"So, Harry, have you got any idea about the DA meeting this week?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I'm thinking, it took three hours for everyone to duel last time, so I think that's what Friday will be about," Harry replied. "I'm going to have to find out some more spells for Saturday though, if the duelling is all about practising old spells, then we should be learning new spells on Saturday. I'll have to look in the library when we get back."

"I found a great book, it's in my dormitory at Hogwarts," Hermione said. "I'll have to show it to you when we get back." Harry nodded and continued with his drink.

"Ron, did you know Charlie was getting out of St Mungo's today?" Harry asked, curiously.

"Of course i did," Ron replied. "How did you know?"

"Ginny told me," Harry said. "How is he now?"

"Well, the healers say he'll be fine if he stays off work for a while," Ron said. "He's had over a month in St. Mungo's so he should be alright now, i hope."

"He'll be fine," Hermione said.

Harry, Ron and Hermione left after three drinks and found their way back to their tent. It was still quite early, but they decided that they could find something to do in the tent. Harry retreated to his bedroom, while Hermione and Ron dug out an old box of wizards chess from the drawers and began to play. Harry took the parchment from Ginny from his pocket and stared at it for a few moments. He took a quill from his bag, but continued to stare at the paper. He hesitated for a few moments, then three the paper and quill onto the floor.

_No, Its not true _He thought _We're friends, and that's all. I don't want anything else, do i?_

He pushed back the memories of how happy he was last year and stared at the roof of the tent.

But another thought popped up into his mind.

_Snape knew about Harry and Ginny._

He knew.

_Even if she isn't with me, she isn't safe. _He thought._ Voldemort used her against me once, he might do it again. Just because there's a war happening doesn't mean we can't be happy._

He rolled over and pushed his face further into the pillow, trying to forget all of his thoughts, it would be wrong to change his mind, after everything last year. He closed his eyes and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

**A/N - Thanks for the reviews. **

**Sorry if this chapter took longer than expected, but it's up now. Once again, i tried to make it longer, which took quite a while. 4000 words without this... Not bad. I thought i should bring in what's happening with Harry and Ginny and there it is.**

**Enjoy (And Tell Me What You Think)**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N - Sorry it's took so long to get up, i took a little break. But i am back. Will try and get it updated asap, but it's getting really difficult as i am never on the computer anymore.**

**Enjoy! (And Please Review)**

* * *

Harry woke after what felt like a minutes sleep. He found his glasses, which had fell onto the floor while he was sleeping, he pushed them onto his nose and sat up. Hermione was stood in front of him. 

"Harry, it's getting late, are you ready to leave?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure, Let me just get my cloak and i'll be ready," Harry replied. Hermione left the room and Harry stood up. He crossed the room and picked up the parchment and quill, he put them carefully into his bag, hoping to forget about Ginny. He grabbed his invisibility cloak and his wand and left the room. Ron and Hermione were sat at the kitchen table, both looking at a map, none of them noticed that Harry had entered.

"From here," said Hermione, pointing at the map. "We could cut across the churchyard and then it's a shorter walk."

"The graveyard?" Ron said. "Aren't you forgetting what happened in our fourth year? Cedric Diggory died there, you-know-who came back to life there, Harry was almost killed there. I don't think that he would want to go back there again."

"I don't mind," said Harry. Ron and Hermione turned suddenly.

"We didn't realise you were there," Ron said, his ears slowly turning red.

"Are you sure you want to go across there, Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded and soon the three were leaving their tent. Hermione had bought three torches from the shop on the campsite and they were ready to go. If any muggles saw them, they simply looked like they were going for a late night walk, nothing suspicious. They left the campsite, and wandered down the dusty road until they came to an opening in the hedge that ran down the side of the road. There was a rusty iron gate that the three climbed over, and it led into the churchyard.

The churchyard was dark and eerie. The hedge that they had just passed through surrounded all of it, which gave it some kind of unnatural darkness. Hermione turned her torch on and they looked across the churchyard. There were many graves in neat lines, however, this was different from Harrys parents graves. Most were covered with moss and dirt, the flowers placed on the graves were dead, and the grass in between the graves was long and overgrown. The church was a small bulding, hidden in the darkness, the grass around it was neatly trimmed and there was a small path leading away from the church over to the other side of the Graveyard. The three friends followed the path throught the gravestones in silence. Harry stopped suddenly when he realised that he had been in this place before. The hedge had grown short and there was a little more light on the gravestones, in the distance, Harry could see the Riddle House in the distance. He walked away from the path for a short while until he reached what he was looking for. This was the place where Cedric Diggory had been murdered. He walked a little further and stopped in the spot where Voldemort had been reborn. Memories of that night in his fourth year flooded back to him; seeing Lord Voldemort return to power, his faithful servants around him, his enemy, Harry, in front of him, an easy target. Harry was brought back to reality when he felt something on his shoulder. He turned quickly.

"Harry, you alright mate?" Ron asked, Hermione was a little behind him, looking at the names on the gravestones.

"This is where it happened," Harry said. "Cedric died there," he pointed to the spot where Hermione was stood, she quickly leapt away. "Voldemort came back, right behind me, it's hard to believe it really." The three of them turned suddenly when they heard something behind them. They all stepped back into the darkness and waited. They could hear small scuttling noises from the other side of the graveyard, as though a rat was there. Harry quickly pulled the invisibility cloak over the three of them, though it didn't cover the whole of them, but they were mainly hidden by the darkness. A few moments later there was a large crack, and a tall man appeared in the graveyard. He had greasy black hair and a rather large, hooked nose. The three friends immediately recognised him. Severus Snape. Harry stared at Snape, the anger he felt boiling up inside of him. He tried hard to resist the tempatation to attack Snape. Hermione and Ron both had their hands on his arm, ready to pull him back in case he did that. He sank back and relaxed, waiting for what would happen next.

Snape paced up and down, his cloak billowing in the soft wind. He looked around himself, and, for a moment, Harry thought that the three of them had been spotted and Snape looked towards them. Snape soon turned around when there was a noise behind him, a man appeared from nowhere. He looked similar to a rat, the three friends stared, shocked at the sight. Peter Pettigrew.

"Well, Wormtail, what have you called me here for?" Snape shouted, he sounded slightly annoyed.

"They are planning an attack on Hogwarts," Wormtail replied, flinching slightly as Snape shouted. He stepped back, looking afraid. "I was asked to bring you here."

"Why am i needed?" Snape said, bitterly. "The Dark Lord already set me a task, I do not need interruptions from people like you." He stared at Wormtail, with a look of pure evil in his dark eyes.

"He needs to know everything about Hogwarts," Wormtail replied, stepping away from Snape again. "You have worked there for the last few years, you should know more than what i have told him."

"Fine." Snape said. "Where is he?"

"In the old Riddle House," Wormtail replied. "He is waiting for you." Snape turned to walk away, then, when realising that Wormtail was not following, he turned.

"What are you doing?" Snape said. "Surely he needs you as well."

"I have something else i have to do," Wormtail replied, and Harry could swear he saw Wormtails eyes flicker towards where the three of them where stood. Wormtail soon transformed into his rat form and Snape left. Wormtail crept slowly around the gravestones, approaching the three friends. He stopped in front of where they were stood and returned to his human form.

"Potter, i know you are there," Wormtail said. The cloak dropped from the front of them, and all three were stood, their wands raised high, pointed at Wormtail.

"What do you want, Pettigrew?" Harry spat. This was the man who had brought Voldmort back. This was the man who had betrayed his parents. This was one of the people that Harry despised most in the world.

"Please, lower your wands," Wormtail said, smiling slightly, showing his yellowing teeth. "I have not come here to attack or fight you, i have no weapon, i come here to help."

"Why would you want to help us?" Ron said, staring at the man, who had been his pet rat for many years.

"You just want to spy on us," Hermione said. "He has sent you, hasn't he?"

"No, if he knew i were here he would kill me." Wormtail said. He looked around nervously, then turned back to the three teens. "If you wish to know why i want to help you, let me remind you of something that happened four years ago." There was no answer from the three friends. "In your third year at Hogwarts. You saved my life, Harry. There is a form of magic that now, how can i explain this, binds us, so in one way, i have to save your life, or help you."

Harry suddenly remembered the words of Albus Dumbledore many years ago.

"_A day may come when you will be very glad you saved Pettigrew's life_," Harry muttered, Ron and Hermione looked at him confused. "After i let him escape, Dumbledore said that to me. At the time i didn't see what importance it had, but, now i do." They stood in silence for a moment, until Hermione spoke.

"I remember reading something about ancient magic," she said. "It makes sense..." She turned to Ron, who had a mixed expression of anger and confusion on his face.

"So you are going to let him help us?" Ron shouted. "He is on the other side, he brought You-Know-Who back, he sent Sirius to prison for something that he did!"

"Ron, listen, Harry saved his life and for that reason, Wormtail is in Harrys debt," Hermione said. "When Harry saved his life, some kind of bond was created between them."

"So, how do you think you can help us?" Harry asked, hoping to prevent any argument between his two best friends.

"I'm guessing you just heard about Hogwarts, perhaps you could send a message to them, prevent any injuries." Wormtail replied.

"You can't really believe this load of rubbish, Harry?" Ron said. His wand was now pointed and Wormtail. "He's lying, or setting us up." Harry's mind was racing, the only thing that was leading him to believe Wormtail was Dumbledore's words five years ago, and, because of that, he had to believe Wormtail.

"If you are truly on our side, why can't you leave You-Know-Who, let the Order protect you?" Ron said.

"He can't," Harry said quietly. "Firstly, Voldemort will find him, and you know he will. Also he is responsible for my parents, if he went to the Order, they wouldn't let him in. It was because of him that Sirius went to Azkaban. They won't let him back." The memories of Harrys Godfather brought the anger back, Sirius had trusted Wormtail and that had left him in the wizard prison. However, again, the words of Dumbledore came back and calmed him.

"We've got no choice but to believe him," Hermione said. "When is it going to happen?"

"In the next hour," Wormtail said. "The Dark Lord is gathering his Death Eaters now, their marks will be burning. But it won't just be Death Eaters. Fenrir, and his friends, the dementors. It will be a terrible attack. It would be better to empty Hogsmeade as well. Also, The Dark Lord is going himself. He hopes to kill you personally, Harry. And he wants to know the entire contents of the prophecy."

"We'd better send a message, now." Harry said quickly, hoping to move the conversation away from his own death.

"How?" Hermione shrieked. "We can't apparate back, it's too dangerous."

"I have an idea," Wormtail said. "The Order used to send messages using their Patronus'. It would be the best idea, no dark magic can get to the message."

"It's worth a try," Hermione said. "Show me how to do it." Hermione and Wormtail moved away slightly, leaving Harry and Ron alone.

"I can't believe you are doing this," Ron muttered. "You are trusting that liar. He betrayed your parents, Harry, it's because of him that you grew up with the Dursley's, It's because of him that Sirius went to Azkaban. It's his fault that your life has been hell for the last seventeen years." Ron's voice was now rather loud, his face was bright red, matching his hair.

"Stupefy!" Harry shouted. Ron fell to the floor.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed, running over to Ron. "Ener-"

"No!" Harry said, pulling Hermione away. "Leave him, for now, or we'll be heard." Hermione looked at Harry for a few minutes, then Ron. Eventually she stood and walked over to Pettigrew.

Within ten minutes, Hermione had mastered the messenger patronus and had sent the message to Hogwarts. Wormtail had returned to his duties for Voldemort

"I hope that works," she said, as she followed Rons levitated body down the dark road. Her and Harry had decided it would be better to wait at the tent for another hour or so, until they knew it was safe. Harry threw his invisibility cloak over Ron as they reached the road leading up to the campsite. They waited until they were in the tent before reviving Ron. When he woke, he said nothing, and disappeared to his room, leaving Harry and Hermione alone.

"Well, i can't say i blame him," Harry said. "Stunned by your best mate,"

"He'll get over it soon," Hermione said. "He'd better anyway, because he's going to come with us to the Riddle House either way." She stood and crossed the room to the kitchen. "Do you think we'll find anything there?"

"I'm not sure," Harry said. "I don't know if he would hide two so close together, but, he does hide them in places with some kind of relevance. That house is the place where he killed his father and grandparents, and he returned there in our fourth year when he came back, so it seems right to look."

"Yeah, i suppose." Hermione said, returning to the sitting area with two steaming cups of hot chocolate. "It would help if we knew what we were looking for, though."

"That would help, but it's not necessary." Harry said. "He's going to protect it with strong magic. So we have to be careful. You saw Dumbledore's hand last year, and that was him." Hermione nodded. "When do you want to get going?"

"We'll leave it another hour or so," Hermione said. "Just to be safe."

Harry nodded, then returned to his room. He found the parchment from Ginny at the bottom of his bag and looked at it. There was a message from her.

_Harry, we just got your message. Thanks for the warning. Hogsmeade has been emptied and everyones safe in the castle. The members of the Order have made the charms around the castle stronger, now we just waiting. Are you alright? How did you find out? Hermione didn't mention that in her note. Please reply as soon as you get this, I'll update you if anything happens._

_Ginny._

Harry sighed, relieved. The message had got there ok. He took his quill and bottle of ink from his bag and began to right on the paper.

_We are fine. We are going to look for the you-know-what later, when we know it's safe. I'll keep you informed on what's happening. Be Careful. Harry._

Harry placed the parchment in his pocket and returned to the sitting area, where Ron had joined Hermione. Ron didn't turn when Harry arrived, and refused to look at him.

"I've told him what's happened." Hermione said. "I just hope it got there."

"It did." Harry said. Hermione stared at him blankly, as if to ask how he knew, and Ron turned a little. "Ginny told me."

"How?" Hermione asked.

"We worked out a way of talking to each other, she wanted to know how things were going and whatever..." Harry muttered.

"You haven't told her what we're doing have you?" Hermione said.

"Of course not!" Harry lied. "Now, come on, we'd better get going. We've wasted enough time." He turned to leave, tucking the invisibility cloak under his arm. Hermione followed, dragging Ron behind her. They walked in almost complete silence through the darkness. Again, they found themselves in the graveyard, they passed through quickly and stopped as they reached the other side.

The Riddle House was clearly visible from where they were stood. They stared at it for a few moments before Hermione dragged the other two forward. They moved on quickly, speaking very little and soon found themselves in the grounds of the old house. A small house could be seen in a dark corner of the grounds; the house that had once belonged to Frank Bryce, the gardener. Harry suddenly remembered his dream from many years ago, where he had saw what had happened in this house. He ran forwards, weaving through the tall overgrown plants.

He reached the house and found the back door. Harry pushed the door open and stepped into a dark dusty kitchen. Ron and Hermione followed, all three had their wands raised high. They crept silently through the darkness, their footsteps disturbing the perfectly settled dust on the floor. Harry pushed the door open into the hallway and stepped forward, pointing his wand into the darkness. Hermione and Ron stepped into the hallway so that they were behind Harry. All three moved to go forwards, but paused suddenly, as a light appeared at the end of the hallway and the sound of footsteps approaching echoed through the room.

_They Weren't alone._


End file.
